Fergus Finlay: We must stop funding greyhound racing  

Today though, I want to follow New Zealand, to catch up with it, not beat it. That little faraway country has made the civilised and decent decision to ban greyhound racing. They’re going to do it by law, because they have decided that it’s the right thing to do in the interests of animal welfare. There will now be only four countries left in the world where greyhound racing remains legal — the US (in only two states), Australia, the UK, and here in Ireland.

But there will also now be only two countries left in the entire world where taxpayers subsidise greyhound racing. And we are one of them. In the last 20 years, give or take a few bob, Irish governments have ploughed around €340m into the dogs. Imagine that. It will be just under €20m this year alone.

And that money will go to an entity now called Rásaíocht Con Éireann, or Greyhound Racing Ireland. It used to be called Bord na gCon — the Greyhound Board — but someone decided a name change might be a good idea (I wonder why?). I actually think we should just call it the Dogs Body.

According to their most recent annual report, this odd company made no real money of its own. If it was entirely dependent on the income it gets from trainers, owners, prize-winners, gate receipts or catering at events, and if it had to pay prize money out of all that, it would have to fold its tent in the morning.

It simply would not survive without subsidy — the roughly €20m a year we give it. More or less half of that subsidy is given out in prize money.

That’s why a sum of money is ring-fenced by law every year for this organisation and for one other — Horse Racing Ireland. And that really makes us unique in the entire world. There is no other economy anywhere in the world that has decided to pass a law, and renew it year after year, to absolutely guarantee that the taxpayers of that economy will subsidise two activities and two activities only — horse-racing and greyhound racing.

Nothing else in this country — nothing — has a legislative guarantee of ring-fenced funding for itself. No other sport, no aspect of culture, no social service, no disability or health or older people’s service. The Defence Forces don’t, the Gardaí don’t, the Fire Brigade doesn’t, the libraries don’t

It doesn’t matter how essential to the community or to the national quality of life a service might be, if it needs taxpayers to fund it or support it they have to make their case year after year. And take their chances with the Budget.

Except the horses and the greyhounds. And do you know how much they have been given since this guarantee was enshrined in law? One thousand, seven hundred million euro — €1.7bn if you prefer with 80% of it to horses, 20% gone to the dogs (to coin a phrase). And the vast bulk of that has been given out in prize money.

At one level this is a crazy, stupid investment by the State — even if there weren’t hundreds of other essential things to invest in. Just imagine, for instance, how many young people with scoliosis could be financially supported to secure essential treatment wherever in the world they wanted to go?

Why is it crazy? Well, according to the Dogs Body’s own annual report, their mission is supposed to be about “enabling the delivery of a customer centred, highly exciting and value led entertainment experience”. 

They also say they ran 1,406 race meeting which attracted 378,748 “patrons”. That means less than 270 people attended each race meeting on average — and that’s described as an improvement on the previous year

And that’s despite their “best efforts” at promoting themselves. Want to raise money for your charity? A night at the dogs will do it. The prefect Christmas party? A great Hen night or Stag do? Let’s all go to the dogs. A great family night out with your toddlers? Don’t worry that the majority of these “stadia” are run-down flea bitten kips. Let’s all have a wonderful evening watching dogs run for their lives (because only the winners are likely to survive for very long). You’ll find all these offers on our website.

If this is a sport, it’s clearly dying on its feet. It’s a “value led entertainment experience” that and provides no value whatsoever to the taxpayers of Ireland. The Dogs Body has the absolute neck to describe the Irish sport as world leading. The only possible basis on which that could be true is that nobody else is doing it. The UK, I suspect, has very little interest in sustaining this activity, so soon enough we’ll be on our own. We’ll really be world-leading then, right? What a farce. 

But the real — and much darker — truth is that the Dogs Body is as much about promoting breeding as it is about racing

 Some years ago now a report commissioned by the Dogs Body itself found that the Dogs Body effectively encourages the breeding of ten times more dogs than are necessary for racing. The result? Thousands of “underperforming” dogs were being killed each year. Under the watchful (or is that the blind) eye of a State agency, subsidised up to its eyeballs by you and me.

When RTÉ got hold of that report a few years ago and used it as the basis of a hard-hitting programme, the Dogs Body’s primary response was to complain about unfair treatment. Their complaint was thrown out by the Broadcasting Authority. Now they go on and on about traceability and welfare and high standards. No reputable animal welfare organisation has faith in those claims.

So here’s what we have. A guarantee written into the law of the land that the State — you and me — will continue to plough tens of millions into an entity that masquerades as a sporting body, but promotes over-breeding and gambling. And all we need to do to fix that is a simple decision. Stop doing it.

Tell the so-called industry it’s going to stand on its own two feet, because we’re going to invest the money in scoliosis treatment instead.

If it’s that popular and important, sure they’ll be grand.