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

Yes, and I am giving a commitment that I will speak to HRI about harness racing, and I will ask it to have an open mind and to be supportive, but I will not direct it to give money for the moment. I have not even seen the harness racing industry's application for funding. There are many other demands for funding in the equine sector. I am not saying "Yes" or "No" to the harness racing sector. All I am saying is we are at the start of a process in trying to regularise harness racing in Ireland, which is an issue from a welfare point of view as much as from a sporting point of view, and we all know this. I have said very bluntly to the people in the sector, some of whom come from my county and they are great people, that we want to try to create what has been created in countries such as France, which has a proper regulated industry where horses and yards are inspected with a licensing program and many other measures to ensure this is not just a loose arrangement whereby people turn up and race at big venues without having the proper infrastructure behind it. I want to work with the industry to do this. The Department will do this and HRI will be helpful, but it is not its job to manage it unless we change the legislation in this regard.

There is no mention of harness racing in the new horse racing legislation we will introduce. People are trying to remove the mention of point-to-points from the legislation because they do not want it to be considered as horse racing, even though they want to take more than €1 million through Horse Racing Ireland each year for point-to-points. All I am doing is asking for a proper discussion on the issue. I will be helpful, as will the Department, but I not want to create a mini-crisis in the horse and greyhound fund around this issue. If we delay approval of this because we must solve a problem with the harness racing industry, we will create an unnecessary focus linked to the fund, which is a separate issue.