Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh na finnéithe tráthnóna inniu. Is deas go raibh an deis acu cur i láthair a dhéanamh.

I welcome the witnesses. I was very interested in their submission. I do not get the logic of where the problems are coming from. In other words, as far as I am concerned, this is just another sport and another way for people to enjoy themselves, and it is legitimate. The witnesses have outlined that it is common right across Europe - it is certainly common in America - and that there are no welfare issues, etc.

We can discuss this at a private meeting next week, but I would be fascinated to hear the HRI side of the story, which would be one way of progressing this. I believe the best way forward in any situation, if there are counterarguments, is to hear both sides. One can then make a judgement but one should never make a judgement by hearing one side only. However, I am intrigued as to what are the HRI's problems. I could have foreseen two issues, one of which is the organisation of the people organising the harness races and that is something that would be addressed by proper codes of conduct and behaviour. I wonder whether the HRI would argue that the vehicles themselves would damage the race courses. Again, it does not seem to do any damage in other countries, although there might be an argument that the going is sometimes a bit softer in Ireland than in other places, so let us hear that out.

As of now, however, I do not know of any good reason for this problem. Nonetheless, we know there is a problem there and, therefore, the HRI must have some counterargument. To be honest with the witnesses, if we want to progress this, we will have to try to find out what the real argument is. Sometimes people give us arguments but is not really what is worrying them; rather, it is one they think is presentable. We will just have to find out what the logjam is and try to deal with that. This concerns the issue of access to courses, particularly where private people are willing to give the IHRA the courses but it is not able to get them because the HRI is overruling this.

The second issue is that of Government appropriations. I believe that, as an equine activity, harness racing should have access to funding. The committee has a study ongoing in regard to horses in general and the whole horse industry, literally from the thoroughbreds through the sport horses and every other kind of horse right down to horses in urban communities, in trying to take a holistic view and see how it could all be properly regulated, properly done and properly funded. Therefore, there is no reason I can see that we would not suggest to the Minister that the IHRA, subject to the normal checks and balances, would be funded either directly or indirectly, but that funding would be made available. I believe the IHRA request is quite modest and amounts to a few hundred thousand euro. It is not exactly the biggest such request we have ever received.

I would like to address the issue of road and sulky racing. It is interesting that there are two sports in Ireland which take place on the road. One is sulky racing, and we heard much talk about that, and the other is the favourite Cork sport of bowling, where they close all the roads in the evening and throw bowls along the road. The great and the good of south Cork or west Cork are into this activity in a big way. I do not know if it has got over the border into Kerry yet.