Mr. Mark Flanagan:

We have racing at Wexford, at Naas racecourse and we have had racing at Clonmel in the past. We race on grass. Many of the tracks in France are grass and are shared facilities where a thoroughbred would race on them and a trotting race would also race on them. The wheel does not make any difference; it is the hoof prints and our hoof prints are the same as a thoroughbred hoof prints. As long as it is not soft-going then we are more akin to what the flat horse needs where we need fast-going, but we can also go on soft ground. In the UK there is an annual two day race meeting at the Musselburgh racecourse and there are no problems there, but we seem to have a problem with allowing both types of racing in Ireland.

We would like to put a plan in place around Ireland to have race meetings in Sligo, Limerick, Kerry, Wexford and Waterford. This gives everybody a chance to participate. This sport is known as a working man's sport all over Europe. It is accessible for the working man or a husband and wife. I have attended races in France over the last number of years and it is amazing to see couples coming to the races in their sulky and the husband racing the horse in the evening where the prize money on offer can be €14,000; the minimum prize money in France is €10,000. The programme they have is unreal.

The French agencies are supporting us by giving us some prize money - they provide a third of the prize money for French trotting racing at the moment - but they also provide us with an arrangement where we subsidise the buying of race horses. We signed an agreement with the French two years ago which allows for the breeding of a horse in Ireland which is then permitted to go back and race in France. In France international races only account for 10% of the calendar and 90% of races are for French owned horses. However, if a horse is bred in Ireland through the Trotteur Français programme it is allowed to enter races in France with a prize fund totalling nearly €230 million. There is also a huge breeder streaming programme which generates €29 million in breeder's fees. If a horse is bred in Ireland but races in France a breeder would receive a breeding premium because of the signed agreement with France which allows us to breed horses in Ireland. This is a huge opportunity for the industry in Ireland.