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The office of the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure have said that an Irish Council Against Blood Sports pre-budget submission calling for an end to the funding of greyhound racing "will be considered in the context of the forthcoming Budget".

Since 2001, Greyhound Racing Ireland has received €328 million of taxpayers' money, including grants of €19.2 million for 2021, €17.6 million for 2022 and €18.2 million for 2023. This is unacceptable and must be stopped.

In our 28-page submission to Ministers Michael McGrath and Paschal Donohoe, we stressed that greyhound racing is a failing, dying “industry”. We highlighted the cruelty and killing inherent in greyhound racing, including the annual culling of thousands of greyhounds not fast enough to win races, the illegal blooding of greyhounds using small animals and the doping of greyhounds to make them run faster or slower.

Also brought to the Ministers' attention was the low level of attendance at tracks.

“Interest in greyhound racing has been significantly declining for more than a decade and this is reflected in plummeting attendances at tracks,” we stated. “Greyhound Racing Ireland has attempted to hide the low level of public support for racing by presenting deceitful attendance statistics. Their misleading figures have been used to try and justify the continuation of government grants by conveying a level of public interest which does not exist.”

We pointed out that GRI has been substantially boosting its “attendance” numbers by including greyhound owners, greyhound trainers and bookies. This outrageous inclusion of those involved in racing has been more than doubling the actual attendance figures and masking the true level of unpopularity of greyhound racing.

“When these are excluded, tracks were between 75% and 93% empty at races last year – statistics which leave no doubt that the public has largely rejected the cruel, dog-killing activity,” we told Ministers McGrath and  Donohoe. “Tralee, Youghal and Limerick Stadium (headquarters of Greyhound Racing Ireland) – were more than 90% empty on average at race meetings in 2022, while Shelbourne Park stadium - which has a stated capacity of “4,200 persons” - was 87% empty, with average attendance of just 561 per race meeting in 2022.”

Low attendance has also been recorded this year. In the first four months of 2023, the average race attendance at Youghal track, for example, was a mere 3 people. This track has ridiculously received over €763,000 in funding over the past three years.

Also flagged was the close link between greyhound racing and hare coursing: “By propping up greyhound racing, the government is also sustaining hare coursing - a bloodsport which 77% of Irish citizens want banned. Registration fees for track greyhounds are paid to the Irish Coursing Club, an income stream that is helping to keep this shameful activity alive. In coursing, thousands of Irish Hares are snatched from the wild, held in captivity for weeks or months and used as live bait for greyhounds to chase. Every coursing season, hares are hit and pinned on coursing fields and suffer painful injuries and die.”

“The continuation of this bloodsport 23 years into the new millennium shames Ireland. It was outlawed in the UK in 2004 and a ban came into effect in Northern Ireland over a decade ago in 2010. It is banned in most countries around the world and Ireland is one of only three countries in the EU that continue to permit it,” we added.

A RED C opinion poll confirmed that a two-thirds majority of people want the government to stop funding greyhound racing (with just 16% in favour of it continuing). Petitions urging the government to end the funding have more than 400,000 signatures.

The funding is totally at odds not only with public opinion but also with the stance of our national tourism bodies which have rejected the activity. In 2019, Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland both stopped promoting greyhound racing due to the suffering and deaths, and fears that it damages Ireland’s reputation as a tourist destination. 

Many companies have also disassociated from greyhound racing including Air France (which removed Irish greyhound racing from 44 of its international websites), Thomas Cook, Toyota Ireland, Opel Ireland, Heineken Ireland/Murphy’s, Dublin Bus, Eir Sport, Tesco Ireland, Electric Ireland, Applegreen, Barry’s Tea, Hyde Irish Whiskey, Permanent TSB, Maldron Hotels, Clayton Hotels, Hertz, Expedia, Galway Crystal, FBD Insurance, Botanica International, Voucher Cloud, North Star Hotel Dublin, Metropole Hotel Cork, Treacy’s Hotel Waterford, The Mayson Hotel, Trip Indicator, Food For Thought (the official publication of the Restaurants Association of Ireland), DishCult, MummyPages.ie, Ireland Before You Die, Dublin Convention Bureau, In Your Pocket City Guides, etc.

ACTION ALERT

Greyhound Racing Ireland should not be funded by the people of Ireland, the majority of whom have no interest in greyhound racing and are opposed to cruelty to animals. Please join us in urging Ministers McGrath and Donohoe to respect the views of the majority who want the funding stopped and ensure that not a single cent is allocated to greyhound racing in Budget 2024.

Michael McGrath
Minister for Finance
Email: michael.mcgrath@oireachtas.ie; minister@per.gov.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/michael.mcgrath.1614
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mmcgrathtd

Paschal Donohoe
Minister for Public Expenditure, National
Tel: (01) 618 3689
Email: paschal.donohoe@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/paschal.donohoe
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Paschald

Please contact your local TDs and urge them to oppose this funding. Visit the Oireachtas website for contact details for TDs https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/33

Please sign and share the petitions

GAA: Stop club fundraisers at greyhound tracks
https://www.change.org/p/gaa-stop-club-fundraisers-at-greyhound-tracks

Tell Gain Pet Nutrition to Stop Sponsoring Greyhound Racing
https://www.change.org/p/jimtracy-glanbia-ie-tell-gain-pet-nutrition-to-stop-sponsoring-greyhound-racing

Watch RTE’s award-winning “Greyhounds Running For Their Lives” documentary
https://youtu.be/ZYTb2qBjlMM