Financial shadow over IHRB makes refusal to grant it extra funding no surprise

There might be some bureaucratic chortling in Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) at the neat symmetry of how its extra funding towards integrity services for 2024 totals the €1.2 million that the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) asked for but didn’t get.

Earlier this week, the HRI 2024 budget statement headlined record prize money for next year and a seven per cent integrity funding increase to €17.3 million, up from this year’s €16.1 million. But, as is the nature of the communications business, the real meat of the matter got obfuscated.

Just three weeks ago, the IHRB’s chief executive Darragh O’Loughlin told an Oireachtas Agriculture Committee the regulator needed an extra €1.2 million next year to implement more drug testing as recommended in an independent report from Dr Craig Suann into anti-doping practices here.

The IHRB tested over 5,000 of the 34,000 runners in Irish races in 2022 but wants to do more. For that it needs extra money as laboratory costs of around €1.6 million are its biggest expense after payroll. The IHRB’s 2023 budget is €11.4 million of public money from HRI.

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O’Loughlin told the Oireachtas committee an extra €1.2 million was “not a huge amount of money” in the circumstances. Those circumstances are persistently damaging doping stories such as the recent and ongoing one involving trainer Tony Martin, so it’s not hard to see the logic.

But the HRI board, which includes IHRB representatives, opted to take a swerve. On the face of it they upped the overall integrity budget for services such as stalls handlers, on-course TV pictures, and the like. But the regulator’s operational budget for 2024 remains at €11.4 million.

Behind the communications jargon, it represents a pretty unambiguous snub. Maybe it might become a topic at the new joint-working group the IHRB proposes to set up as part of its new four-year strategic plan unveiled last week. But as things stand it was pointed stuff.

On the face of it, this extra funding should have been straightforward. When it comes to regulation, HRI’s role is basically to put up and shut up. Legislatively, and theoretically, the whole point of the IHRB is its independent policing, or at least as reasonably independent as State funding should allow.

The more practical reality is underlined by the grindingly torrid progress towards meaningful regulation for a €2.5 billion sector by a body that has shipped huge criticism over the last decade and, despite some substantial structural reforms, still faces a significant credibility gap.

So, when the IHRB goes to racing’s paymasters for more money to fight the doping scourge, it really ought to be a straightforward exercise in rubber-stamping. Doping undermines racing’s reputation generally, so everyone’s got skin in the game of trying to stamp it out.

Except there’s nothing uncomplicated about simply handing out more public money to an organisation that’s so firmly under the financial spotlight.

An independent report on financial matters of “grave concern” at the IHRB by the audit firm Mazars is still awaited. That’s on the back of O’Loughlin’s startling appearance in front of the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee in June.

Having informed the committee of how the IHRB’s chief financial officer Donal O’Shea had been put on voluntary leave, the CEO could hardly be accused of underplaying the gravity of the situation in describing it in “bombshell” terms.

There’s also continuing fallout from concerns originally raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General about a €384,870 ‘golden handshake’ paid to O’Loughlin’s predecessor at the regulatory helm, Denis Egan.

The current IHRB boss mightn’t think €1.2 million is a huge amount. But the financial cloud hanging over the regulator means a semi-State organisation in charge of €76 million of public money might reasonably be chary of blindly handing it over. It would hardly send out the right governance signals.

The problem is that not coughing up sends out other signals about Irish racing’s seriousness when it comes to the doping fight. Increasing tests, especially out of competition testing, must be a fundamental element of that, and the IHRB needs HRI money to do so.

Failure to sing from the same hymn sheet sends out a lot stronger signal than press-release fodder or a jargon-packed strategic plan released by the IHRB crammed with corporate-speak about transparency and accountability but little detail on how to actually follow through on the ground.

Like it or not, Irish racing’s regulation is in the IHRB’s hands. And to operate effectively it needs HRI money. The ruling body’s call on this occasion has been to not play ball. The pity from the regulator’s point of view, and particularly from the perspective of the sport overall, is that few can’t guess why not. And that’s no laughing matter.

Something for the Weekend

Evergreen jockey Niall McCullagh can make it two from two on SPINNING WEB (7.0) at Dundalk on Friday night. McCullagh had to be strong to get the hurdles winner up over course and distance last month. The horse has a better draw this time and is just 6lbs higher in the ratings.

Keith Donoghue goes to Haydock on Saturday for a single spin on BYTHESAMETOKEN (2.40.) Ross O’Sullivan’s charge won at Killarney in October and with just three opponents in a two-mile handicap chase the Irish raider can defy a big weight.