Victor Boyhan praises IHRB reforms, salutes outgoing Chair

Sorry, look, unfortunately I have to do audit business to do with the Oireachtas, so I have to go. But look, I'm very conscious of audit and I have a huge interest in the corporate governance of organisations. I've served on a number of state boards in corporate governance. But first I want to welcome Mr. Lachlan, Mr. Murphy, and Ms. Hillier, and to thank you for coming in here. Before I do that, I just want to take this opportunity, Chair, to, because I won't be here, this is more likely our last meeting in the Agricultural Panel before the general election. And I don't want to miss this opportunity to acknowledge the very significant work of our Chair, Jackie Cahill, who, as indicated, won't be standing in the next general election. And he's not here, and I would have liked to have said it directly to him, but he has been an exceptional Chair. And I wouldn't like to let this opportunity and this committee go without acknowledging Jackie's excellent and amazing knowledge of agriculture in this whole sector and his very fair approach to chairing the business here in this Oireachtas committee. He understood the brief exceptionally well. He worked exceptionally well with the members, with the department, never afraid to confront or challenge the status quo, and worked effectively with organisations and included them and encouraged them to come in here in an open, frank way and participate and engage. And it was always courteous to us and facilitate us here. So I just want to wish, take this opportunity to wish Jackie well in the future. As I say, he was a really excellent Chair and guided us through our work. And also at this point I want to acknowledge the work of our Clerk and the Secretary's support and all the other supports around us. So I just wanted to get that out of the way. But Jackie was an exceptional man with huge knowledge of agriculture and we will certainly miss him and his guidance in terms of this committee. Down now to the business in hand. I suppose first I want to start again on a positive note. And I was only speaking in the Senate the day before yesterday and we were celebrating and I was talking about, you know, the Irish jockey Robbie Dolan, you know, who of course rode the Knight's Choice and claimed the Lexus Melbourne Cup. What a day, what an achievement. And what a really positive story in terms of racing internationally. And of course I didn't have a penny on him and I'm sorry I didn't, but 80 to 1, the odds were fantastic. And if you had 500 on that, you know, happy days. But anyway, I just think that's a really positive note to start here. We have an amazing equestrian industry, an amazing reputation all over the world. We don't want that to be blemished. We don't want that to be undermined. We want to work constructively with all stakeholders in this sector because it is vitally important, the Irish sports horse and all that goes with them. We've had at length a lot of discussion about the issue. We acknowledge there are shortcomings in governance, there are challenges around testing, doping in the sports industry in the past, but I think things are genuinely improving. And I suppose I just want to say that and in the context of coming here today, and I don't intend to ask you too many questions, but I want to make a few observations. I considered in detail the number of the reports that were submitted to all of us. All members would have got them. We would have seen them. We would have studied them. We would have, you know, teased them out amongst ourselves. And I suppose, you know, just to put for the record the IHRB annual reports, I examined them before I came here today. The IHRB statement of strategy to 2024 to 2027, fantastic. It's great to set goals and achievements. And we can't forget what's gone before, but really positive, really, really important. Very well laid out, very well explained, easy to measure. And again, I want to salute you for that. I looked at the report of the equine injury for Irish racing risk reduction project. I thought that was important. Interesting learning around that. The IHRB equine anti-doping reports, again, interesting. There are challenges around that, but I think you acknowledge that. There are vast improvements in that too. The independent review of the IHRB equine anti-doping program, and I think that's important too. So I see a lot of, I see pathways. I see evidence of a very concentrated, positive way of going forward. I think that's what I want to dwell on here tonight. I've also studied the detailed financial governance review from Forvis Mazza, and certain transactions with the Irish Horse Racing Regulatory Board conducted. And I think that sets out a comprehensive background to some of the issues that you've addressed here today. I don't intend dwelling on them. I think it's good that we have an auditing system. Mazza is a very exceptional company. They have set out a number of issues. So that's transparent, and I think that's important. That's key in governance, that we have transparency. And I just want to touch on a few issues, because I looked at your strategic plan in terms of your vision, your governance, and the various pillars that you've set out in that. And the IHRB, of course, as we all know, has a legal responsibility to protect the reputation and the integrity of the Irish horse racing sector. And that's really important. And we go back, and we talked about the Melbourne Cup. You know, anything to do with our reputation is critical to the success of this industry. Growing even further, realizing greater potential. And it's something we, in Ireland, Irish people generally, are very, very proud of. And so I think that's important. But I also think, in the context of this report, the absolute responsibility in terms of how we administer and manage, because there are sufficient, very substantial government grants. They're very significant to this industry. And every year we are approving funding here, and the issues around sports sources generally. And that isn't always easy. There's a lot of conflict around some of that in the days leading up to it, and should there be a variation in that, should we have more money designated or ring-fenced for welfare as opposed to something else? So I think that's important. I honestly believe, and I have no vested interest, I know none of your board or governors or anything, or trustees, I see evidence of a clear strategy in terms of good corporate governance. And I think that's important. But there is the issue, of course, the ongoing issue and the challenge around the record and track in place in terms of ensuring compliance with best practice, the code of practice for the governance of state bodies. You'll be very familiar with them. Again, I see evidence in all of that. I think it's there. You're clearly aware of it. You're clearly aware of your corporate governance responsibilities in that area. And I think that is important. I'm not fully appraised and have that depth-in-depth knowledge about your organisation in terms of how it's resourced in terms of compliance and risk functions. But again, I know it's in there, but that's an important challenge. We have that in here. We have a risk assessment here, audit system, within the OCTAS itself. Every organisation has. So I think it's important that sufficient resources and skill sets are applied and available in terms of high compliance. And I think what gives confidence to people in terms of compliance is when you're transparent. You're here today on a programme that's broadcast on the OCTAS. You're on the record of the OCTAS. And I think that sort of transparency instils confidence. And I think that's really, really important. I would encourage you to have greater collaboration with the HR. You've identified that yourself, Mr. Lockton. And you've said here today that it is your plan to have greater engagement, but also engagement with the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine as it is now. It may be a different thing in a few months' time. And then finally, I just want to say about the constructive stakeholder engagement. Again, I don't know. That's all very nice and dandy to say we're going to engage in constructive engagement through strong communication processes or consultation or, you know, consultation with stakeholders or collaboration. But again, there needs to be greater evidence going forward. I'd ask you to focus more on that because I think that's important. It is rare that I come to this committee and I'm on it for the last five years, four or five years, that I don't have a question, I don't really have a question to ask. I am, having studied in detail the documents before I was submitted to this committee, of the view that you are putting in, and have put in place, mechanisms. What would be more interesting to say in 12 months' time, to say if you would come back here and say how it's going. So I don't really have any questions. I want to thank you for coming here. I want to thank you for being upfront and honest about the problems that you encountered and to acknowledge that your systems, ultimately, some system, threw up this anomaly or this concern and this has now been addressed. I want to thank you for coming to the committee. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. As Senator Wright says, he doesn't have a question, but maybe you might like to comment on his comments. Very grateful for his comments. I might first echo his words about Deputy Jackie Cahill, the Cahillac of this committee, who has always been a great supporter of the horse racing industry and he'd have had conversations with him at race courses across the country. And not just a supporter, but I would say a constructive critic when a constructive critic was needed as well and that's always useful. So we would send him our regards also through the committee if we can. Senator Boyan, I'm very grateful for your observations. I'm grateful that you took so much time to read our documentation. As you say, we are trying to be as transparent and open as we can to set out a plan for the future. And we are very much guided on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual basis by that strategy. My own staff are probably sick of hearing me tell them why we do what we do under that strategy and linking the work back to that strategy. Because it's an important thing to have a vision for an organisation. And that vision for us does include governance and probity and transparency and accountability. That's very important. You spoke of consultation and collaboration. You were emphasising the need for that and I'd agree with you. And over the course of this year, which is the first year of that strategy, we've made particular efforts to expand our consultation and our collaboration with stakeholders. So, for example, we've engaged frequently and very professionally and constructively with the Irish Jockeys Association, even in relation to penalties for riding offences under the rules of racing, where there's been a need to increase penalties in some areas and maybe ease them off in others to modify behaviour and ensure safe riding. And we have found through that engagement that they've been very helpful. And the resulting changes have landed much better. They've been accepted by their membership and that audience, which makes for a smoother and a better regulatory atmosphere where we're not asking them what penalties they want, but we are explaining why we're doing what we're doing and they're helping us in terms of how they think we should do what we were going to do anyway. So I very much agree with you on that. But grateful to you, as I said, for having taken the time to understand our organisation and our industry to such an extent. Thank you.