The ramshackle governance ramifications of that were littered across the PAC hearing. Department officials and the Comptroller and Auditor General basically threw their hands up at the IHRB’s failure to meet the Minister’s request. Egan’s contract either doesn’t exist or the IHRB don’t have it.
The Public Accounts committee heard of how the former CEO of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board received €384,870 termination payment. At the heart of that lie perceptions of a closed shop in hock to an oligarchy of powerful interests that produces a regulatory landscape more interested in keeping a lid on integrity problems than actively rooting them out.
It has been whispered privately this week that O’Loughlin has over-egged the gravity of what’s being investigated. The suggestion is he is new to the job and unfamiliar with racing’s inclination towards privately ironing out any dirty linen by itself.