The Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is to issue a report on Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) that will criticise its lack of transparency on prize-money distribution, its financial governance on procurement and land deals and continuing delays in deploying CCTV to prevent cheating at courses.
he committee held hearings last year on finance and governance matters at HRI, the governing body for horse racing, which will receive
€72m from the Exchequer in 2023.
A draft of the PAC report, which was seen by the Sunday Independent, examines HRI’s accounts for 2019 and 2020. The probe had been part of the PAC’s routine examination of the accounts of public bodies, but given the number of issues raised, it was decided to carry out a formal examination.
The probe takes issue with an alleged lack of transparency in HRI’s distribution of prize money and notes that 70.5pc of its funding comes from the State.
The report states that a significant proportion of prize money is won by the top 20 trainers in both national hunt and flat racing. In the 2019-2020 season, horses trained by the top six national hunt trainers — including Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead and Noel Meade — received €13m.
In the 2020 flat racing season, horses trained by the top six trainers won €12.5m. That list is headed by the Ballydoyle-based Aidan O’Brien, followed by his son, Joseph, and Jessica Harrington. The PAC report notes that before deductions, trainers are allocated 10pc gross of prize money, earning 6.8pc of net total prize money.
“Currently, there is no detailed breakdown of where prize money ends up in any HRI publications,” the draft report states.
“As up to 80pc of exchequer funding of HRI can be used towards prize money, the total pool of which is significant, it is important there is transparency for the taxpayer regarding the prize money.”
The report will recommend that HRI provide a detailed breakdown of where prize money goes in its annual report from last year onwards.
Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy is proposing that the PAC report also question the “rigid” split of money on an 80-20 ratio between HRI and the greyhound sector from the State’s Horse and Greyhound Fund.
He has proposed that the PAC calls for the Department of Agriculture to carry out a full review of the fund, its social and economic impact and whether it ensures there are high standards of animal welfare.
The draft report will be critical of the long delays by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB), which is funded through HRI, in deploying CCTV at racecourses to improve integrity in the sport.
There have been increasing calls for the deployment of cameras after a number of incidents in which horses were allegedly interfered with before races.
The draft report outlines how €60,000 was allocated for the installation of CCTV at four racecourses in 2018 and €80,000 was allocated in 2019.
It found neither allocation was spent on CCTV projects. Instead, the 2018 money went back to the Exchequer and the 2019 money was reallocated to online licensing costs.
Up to last September, CCTV cameras had been introduced at only two of more than 20 courses across Ireland.
The report will say that a €269,000 loss HRI made as a result of the 2019 liquidation of Senaca, the trading name for Business Mobile Security Services, HRI’s former cash-in-transit provider, calls into question the due diligence carried out on its procurement of the service.
The Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (NECB) wrote to PAC last month to say it was working closely with Senaca’s liquidator, who is carrying out a financial analysis of the company.
Allegations of preferential payments at the insolvent company have previously been made in the High Court, where it was heard there was a €1.8m deficit in the company’s finances. As well as HRI, Revenue and the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children were major Senaca creditors.
In a letter to the PAC, Kieran Tansey, a detective sergeant in the NECB, said gardaí have “uplifted a volume of banking documents and financial information”.
He said gardaí were pursuing 50 lines of inquiry and many of these were at an advanced stage, but further investigations are envisaged after the liquidator’s report concluded.
The report will also raise concerns about the financial performance of two land and racecourse developments.
The PAC’s report said HRI had committed €45m to the Curragh Racecourse Ltd (CRL) company. It said that while HRI’s equity investment in CRL was €23m at the end of 2020, the carrying value of its shares in CRL was €16.6m, a cumulative loss of €6.4m.
The report will raise concerns that CRL’s accounts are not audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General and say PAC is “not satisfied” with the performance of HRI’s investment in CRL.
It will also voice concerns about a €105,000 loss seen in the 2020 accounts over a land swap deal involving HRI’s
Tipperary Racecourse subsidiary.
The deal involved the racecourse swapping seven acres of land it bought in 2018 at a writedown of €15,000 an acre just three years later.
The PAC is concerned HRI did not notify the department of the loss in 2021. It will recommend HRI review its investment strategies to achieve better outcomes for the Exchequer.
In a statement, HRI said it is “fully transparent” on prize-money distribution, with details published in its annual Factbook.
“Owners of horses — being the people who invest heavily in the purchase and training of horses — retain most of the prize money won, with trainers (6.9pc) and jockeys (6pc) also receiving a percentage, as well as a number of stakeholder representative bodies and charities,” it said. “In 2022, 69.8pc of all horses who ran in Ireland collected prize money.”
HRI said it has complied with the code of practice for state bodies on land disposals.
The Department of Agriculture has requested “a further enhancement” in relation to land swaps.
It said Tipperary involved “a book loss, not a financial loss”, and the land was bought from Tipperary racecourse’s own resources as part of a strategic development.
It said the redevelopment of the Curragh, Irish racing’s headquarters, “was essential after decades of no investment” and it generated a profit in last year.
It said its CCTV project was subject to a full public procurement process and was delayed due to a legal challenge.
It added that 398 cameras are now working across 20 racecourses, with final testing under way. Additional enabling works, it said, are complete at all 25 racecourse yards, and IHRB believes all tracks will be completed before the end of next month.
