Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

I have figures on that. The distribution is wider than I had thought it was. I refer to the HRI fact book for 2021, which I also referred to when we were talking about metrics. There were 394 fixtures, with 8,700 individual runners and 25% of these horses winning at least one race. Over 6,000 of the individual runners won prize money at some stage. This equates to approximately 69% of individual runners. Of approximately 3,000 individual races, 2,600 have prize money of under €25,000, with 72 having prize money of a sum greater than €100,000. One of the things they have done in recent years - and I hope I am right about this - is they have extended the prize money to the first six across the line. They have broadened the availability of prize money to people.

I can see why the Cathaoirleach would want to look at this. It is a perfectly legitimate question.