On Tuesday night's Off The Ball, two representatives of either side of the greyhound racing debate joined us to discuss the funding of the industry.

The greyhound racing industry received €19.2m funding in the 2021 Budget, which amounts to nearly a quarter of a billion euro via successive governments. It is run by a semi-state body in Greyhound Racing Ireland - formerly Bord na gCon - whose CEO, Gerard Dollard joined us as its representative.

Deputy Holly Cairns TD of the Social Democrats - a critic of the industry and its practices - kicked off the debate.

Greyhound racing

"The vast majority of rural people, of farming and fishing communities, could think of many preferable things to spend €25om on," Deputy Cairns said.

"At the same time that this money is being poured into the industry by successive governments, there was a catalogue of appalling practices and declining public support. The Greyhound Board's own anti-doping and medication report, published in 2016, found 'long-standing and significant deficiencies in policy processes and implementation that have been undermining the integrity and reputation of Greyhound Racing Ireland.'

"Another IGB document stated that the industry was not focused on the sport of greyhound racing but on the breeeding, and found that the industry was failing from both a commercial and a regulatory point of view. That same report found that the industry produces ten times as many greyhounds each year as needed to sustain the sport."

Traceability

The traceability of a dog is one of the thornier issues, in that with such huge numbers of animals being bred, it becomes near-impossible to keep track of them.

Deputy Cairns believes that government funding has underpinned an industry that has been beset by animal cruelty issues.

"The State funding has sustained this cascade of bad practices and really horrific acts. Anyone who saw the [RTE] documentary saw the really horrific footage of greyhounds' ears being burned off so they couldn't be traced.

"To put this into a broader context, we are one of only eight countries that allows greyhound racing. The industry is near-closing in Mexico and it is banned in all but five states in the United States."

Pro-greyhound racing

"At Greyhound Racing Ireland, we welcome the opportunity to put forward the strong case that exists for the greyhound industry," Dollard said. "It is more than a sport, it is an industry. It is a rurall-based industry with a strong urban support base."

"It is run by a government agency is a semi-state organisation. There are many people for whom having and caring for greyhounds is their passion. That translates into an industry, and there has been economic assessments of that industry. We accept that they are out of date and have commissioned an up-to-date economic report into that industry, which is difficult in these COVID times.

"It is a strong industry, it has its challenges like any industry - but it does get a unfair, sometimes invalid criticism at times."

As to what that criticism is, Mr Dollard elaborated.

"I think the most unfair criticism is somehow second-rate or not worthy of support, or is something that people don't care about. I think it is criticised based on the funding it gets, it is criticised in the respect of its care and welfare approach. It is criticised in the respect of doping and medication and the management of that.

"All of those are issues in all other animal sports and even in human sports. It is about saying to people that people have an entitlement to be involved in greyhound racing. It is a legally-run sport and is run by an arm of government in Greyhound Racing Ireland.

"People are entitled to participate in it, they enjoy it and they are entitled to go about their business. They shouldn't be subjected to the level of anti-comment, bordering on harassment at times, in relation to their participation in the sport."

Rural Ireland

Deputy Cairns took issue with the idea of greyhound racing justifying its existence by way of its importance to rural Ireland.

"A 2019 Red C poll in Ireland revealed that only 16% of people in Ireland actually agree with funding this industry. We saw sponsors pulling sponsorship after that [RTE] documentary.

"Anyone who speaks out against this industry and the financial basket case around it is [portrayed as] anti-rural Ireland and this blows my mind because Ireland needs investment in sustainable jobs. With the greyhound racing industry being a loss-making industry, it generates massive amounts of public disquiet, it really isn't the kind of sustainable jobs we are looking for.

"It is the epitome of instability and to claim to have a monopoly on rural Ireland and that greyhound racing is the lifeblood of it is, quite frankly, ridiculous. I think it insinuates that unless you are from a rural area, you are unable to understand the facts, somehow or other."

For the full discussion - check out the video above.

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