Agriculture, Food and the Marine in May 2016.
In this appointment Creed has been entrusted with a Ministerial role in
overseeing the Irish Greyhound industry.
Creed was a member of the Oireachtas Finance Committee, up to February 2016. The role of the Committee is to play key role in scrutinising the work of a number of Departments tasked with the responsibility of public expenditure. Public expenditure such as the funding of the Irish Greyhound(and Horse)racing industries. The Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund payments are divided 20% to the Greyhound industry, and 80% to the Horse racing industry. The HGRF for 2016, overseen by the previous DAFM Ministers, was for €74m, of which the Bord na gCon(Irish Greyhound Board)received €14.8m. The 2016 funding brings the total exchequer funding of the HGRF since 2001 to €1,037,991,713.
In 2012, the now Minster for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, along with other Ministers & T.D's, became the owner of the Greyhound Swift Starlet. The 14-man syndicate(The-oir-syndicate)which includes the Finance Minister Michael Noonan, the then(and now deceased)Junior Minister for DAFM, Shane McEntee, and owner of several Greyhounds Ray Butler T.D.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan was responsible for the increase of 2015 funding for the Bord na gCon, along with the previous DAFM Minister, Simon Coveney, through on-line betting tax legistlation in 2014.
So what became of Swift Starlet?
We can see via her racing results that her last four races looked particularly hard. On the 17th July 2014 she was crowded at the Mullingar track. The next day, 18th July 2014, she was raced again, taking a bump at the Dundalk track. She was balked on her next race, 26th July 2014, at Mullingar, and then finished last in her final race, on 30th August 2014, with her race comments showing that she went the distance but never showed.
Has Swift Starlet been kept for future breeding, as her sister, Brenval Star, was?
In 2014 Brenval Star had a litter of nine pups(five dogs and four bitches)but only four of them are shown on the Board na gCon litter report.
Did Swift Starlet sustain an injury prior to her last race and as such has never raced again?
Has Swift Starlet been homed?
Is Swift Starlet still alive?
According to the Stud Book/Irish Coursing Club and, as we have seen, the Bord na gCon, Swift Starlet is still owned by Creed, Noonan, and the rest of the The-oir-syndicate.
Under the Welfare of Greyhounds Act 2011 If more than one person is entered in the Irish Greyhound Stud Book as the owner of a greyhound, each person so entered is responsible for giving notice of the sale, death, and/or transfer of ownership to the ICC for amendment of the Stud Book. Anyone who fails to follow the regulations set out in the Act commits an offence.
