Mr. Brian Kavanagh:

I have made the point. It is not a question of snobbishness. That is not correct. We have engaged in an ongoing process in consultation with the harness racing authorities. The board has genuine concerns in this area. If the board was not doing that, I believe it would be open to criticism, from both within and outside the sector, that it was not carrying out its legislative functions. The type of veterinary review that I am talking about here is merely common sense due diligence that one would conduct before any decision would be made.

The question of running harness racing side by side with thoroughbred racing on the same race tracks has other implications, not only for us but for the members, as legislators, in terms of the context of the legislation which applies exclusively to thoroughbred racing as, indeed, it does in all other jurisdictions where harness racing is popular. There are separate codes for both sports. They are run under different authorities. They are run, to a limited extent, on the shared venue but on different tracks at each of those venues. That is the process that our board is following and on which it feels strongly.

It is wrong to link a careful diligent approach to a development such as this with a threat to the funding of a sector. There are many requirements. I mentioned the Irish Equine Centre, which is doing an outstanding job for disease surveillance on limited resources and needs a lot of extra resources put into it. It is wrong to suggest that the sector would have its funding cut because it is being careful about issues such as biosecurity. More funding is needed by the Irish Equine Centre to protect the development of trade, not only for the thoroughbred sector but also for the non-thoroughbred sector, which could in time include harness horses or standard-bred horses, although the breed involved comprises mainly horses imported from France.