The chief executive of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) has said he “fully accepts” the findings of an €80,000 investigation into misconduct by the Irish horseracing regulator, which saw €350,000 transferred from a charity to solve a cash flow problem in the governing body and admitted that serious surgery is needed and is already underway in the organisation.

Darragh O’Loughlin, who was appointed to his role in June 2022 after the botched transfer took place, faced questions from the Agriculture, Food and Marine Joint Committee at Government Buildings on Wednesday night following a damning report Mazars.

In his opening statement, O’Loughlin said major changes had been made to improve financial governance at the organization after a movement of money that “should never have happened”.

Ahead of that hearing, the Racing Post put questions to O’Loughlin, and when asked if the charity’s regulator was investigating the matter further, he replied: “We understand that the administrators of the JEF (Joint Expeditionary Force) engaged with the charity regulator who kept them informed of the Forvis Mazars Report.”

Donal O’Shea, the IHRB’s finance director at the time, who was responsible for the €350,000 transfer according to the report, is the only IHRB employee who has subsequently left his post after handing in his resignation in July.

O’Loughlin said he “fully accepts the conclusions of the Forvis Mazars Report and the IHRB is already implementing the recommendations and is on track to complete them by the end of this year”.

He added: “The IHRB recognizes the importance of a robust governance structure and believes that the incident that gave rise to the Forvis Mazars review should not have occurred.

“Since commissioning the review, the IHRB has implemented or is in the process of implementing significant changes to improve financial governance, guided by draft final reports provided during the review process.”

During the hearing, O’Loughlin was asked if he was sure an issue like this would never happen again, to which he replied: “We have controls in place. I have tightened controls around all these financial transactions and in the case of a transaction of that scale, which cannot happen unless I have personally authorized it, I have to physically sign off on a transaction of that scale before it can happen.

“We have set thresholds and anything between €25,000 and €100,000 requires me or the CFO to approve it in addition to another member of senior management. If it’s over €100,000, it has to be me and the CFO or another member of senior management.”

Read this next:

Long-awaited report into financial issue of ‘serious concern’ reveals IHRB breached Charities Act with €350,000 transfer

The long-awaited report on the IHRB scandal makes one thing absolutely clear – the whole situation stinks

Top jockeys like Harry Skelton can’t do without it – and you can subscribe to Racing Post Ultimate Monthly Members Club and get 50% off your first three months! Available to new subscribers who purchase Members’ Club Ultimate Monthly using the code MEMBERS24. The first three payments will be charged at £24.98 and thereafter the subscription renews at the full monthly price. To cancel, please contact us at least seven days before your subscription is due to renew.