Finance department

Our Finance Department, lead by Roger Casey, Group Chief Financial Officer, supports the activities of the Horse Racing Ireland group, including the HRI-owned racecourses and subsidiaries, Tote and Irish Thoroughbred Marketing. 

This department leads the financial strategy for the organisation in order to:

• Support the goals and objectives of Horse Racing Ireland.
• Optimise the use of funding for all sectors of the industry.
• Ensure best practice in governance and financial control.
• Provide insight to financial performance enabling the organisation to target resources effectively.  

As a pillar within the Financial Shared Services Centre the Financial Planning and Reporting function manage the budget, forecast, strategic planning and monthly management reporting processes for HRI, HRI owned racecourses, ITM, Tote Ireland and other associated racecourses. This team provide insight into the financial performance of the organisation providing support to both the CEO and the HRI Board.  Key government financial returns outlining the income and expenditure of the organisation are managed by this team.  

HRI’s finance function is responsible for budget allocation and disbursement of funding across a number of key industry organisations both internally and externally. Prize money, industry body grants and racecourse services are managed by this team. The administration of statutory foal levy which is redistributed to the breeding sector via grant aid is managed via finance. Visit Foal Levy section.  HRI operates payroll for all its operations and is responsible for the pension administration as required under the Pensions Acts. 

HRI’s Financial Shared Services Centre are responsible for management accounting, budgetary control, and statutory accounts for the HRI racecourse division. All accounting systems are common within the group and controls and procedures operate to group standards.

Tote Ireland is a 100% subsidiary of HRI.  The daily cash control and reporting to Tote Ireland CEO and Committee for this entity are managed by HRI’s Financial Shared Services Centre. Management and statutory accounts are produced in compliance with group standards.

The Client Accounts department is responsible for the management of over €66 million in prize money distributed each year and over 8,000 active client accounts.  See Client Accounts.

The Group Capital & Treasury pillar is responsible for cash flow management and minimising the cost of capital for the organisation. In addition, this function manages internal and external loans for the organisation including supporting capital investment for the wider industry. 

Capital development plans are reviewed and financially appraised by this area ensuring that both internal capital expenditure and industry capital grants are controlled in line with public expenditure guidelines.

The Procurement function in HRI is responsible for ensuring that HRI and its subsidiaries adhere to the public procurement requirements of semi state bodies.  This team ensure that HRI and its subsidiaries deal with suppliers and potential suppliers in a fair and equitable manner while delivering significant value for money for the organisation.  Annually the team deal with over 160 procurement projects of differing complexity and value.

HRI prepare financial statements annually for HRI and its subsidiaries and is subject to statutory audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General.  HRI also operate an internal audit function through an externally appointed firm of auditors, reporting to an independent Audit & Risk committee with responsibility for risk mitigation, the approval of audit strategy and reviewing audit reports.  

The finance function also ensures that HRI adheres to all its corporate, indirect and employee tax related obligations.  

The finance function ensures compliance with the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies and all relevant circulars and legislation including compliance with the Grant Policy for bodies in receipt of funding.