Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, the disallowing of the amendments had nothing to do with my office.

I understand a decision was made by the Bills Office that the understood definition of horse racing involved a horse and a rider, and there may have been some issues around thoroughbreds and non-thoroughbreds. Either way, the office ruled it out of order. I have said before that I am sympathetic and am trying to be helpful to the work of the committee in its attempts to examine the regulation, management and structure of harness racing in Ireland and to build an industry around the sport. It makes a lot of sense to me on a series of different levels, including regulation and animal welfare. This is a successful sport and an industry in other countries. I do not see why we cannot do something similar here. However, I understand what the Bills Office has done here. This Bill is specific to Horse Racing Ireland and is being introduced to deal with an existing structure and industry to try to improve transparency following the recommendations of a report into the industry. I am more than happy to consider a similar report into the potential of the harness racing industry, get consultants to look at it and respond to the questions and aspirations raised here in order to progress it properly, but I do not think the way to achieve what the committee wants is to force it into a Bill. According to the Bills Office, it cannot be done that way anyway. If it is to be done, let it be done properly. Let us consider how the appropriate governance and regulatory bodies would work to promote integrity and to ensure the correct systems are in place for drug testing, welfare management, licensing and so on. Much of that structure is there already, but decisions are needed on how funding should be made available to the sport and at what level. It needs to be balanced against all of the other sport horse sectors within the overall horse industry in Ireland, which is a huge sector. I am happy to have an open conversation and work with the committee. We are happy to put some money into a report, but I do not believe we can have a prolonged conversation in the context of this Bill, given the decision made by the Bills Office.