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

This is the last time I will intervene, because I do not want to take up too much of the members' time. I am as anxious as other people to develop a proper, regulated and supported harness racing industry in Ireland, but this cannot be done in a couple of hours by the committee next week, with approval of the horse and greyhound fund hanging over us. The committee needs to bring before it Horse Racing Ireland, Horse Sport Ireland and the Department with regard to welfare issues, and then, working with me because I will support it, come up with a model to put in place a proper regulatory framework, which may need legislation, whether primary or secondary, to bed in and protect the industry. Let us look then at how we fund it, whether through Horse Sport Ireland or Horse Racing Ireland or another mechanism. One could argue that either the Department with responsibility for sport or the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine should fund it. Holding to ransom the thoroughbred racing industry is unfair.