Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 15 December 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Harness Racing Industry: Horse Racing Ireland and Horse Sport Ireland

2:00 pm

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

I would be less than human or honest if I did not state that I got the impression from HRI that there was a question of festina lente, or hasten slowly, it took the view that it did not want this and did not engage. When people do something like that, it normally rebounds against them. I get the feeling that HRI hopes this will go away but it will not. However, I will resist the temptation to get into a slagging match, as we should address the issue.

At the end of the day, we are legislators and a number of issues have been raised. I agree that some should have been dealt with but I do not understand why that took seven years. HRI's letter referred to hygiene and welfare standards. I understand that the standards at the race meeting in Dundalk passed muster with the Turf Club but I presume that, had there been engagement in the past seven years, it would have been agreed that the same standards would apply to harness racing as applied to thoroughbred horses. I endorse the witnesses' comments on the inspection of IHRA premises and presume that the same happens at all thoroughbred premises. The same standards should apply and I do not see why they would not. I cannot understand how this issue cannot be negotiated and resolved.

The letter states in respect of disease surveillance in the non-thoroughbred sector that:

The Board is greatly concerned that there has been no progress on the recommendation of the Cawley / Walsh report that a funding contribution be made from the non-thoroughbred sector to the Irish Equine Centre which provides a research and disease surveillance service for the entire equine industry. As you will appreciate, disease risks are as likely or more likely in the non-thoroughbred as in the thoroughbred sector, but a serious outbreak would have a catastrophic impact on the thoroughbred population, 75% of which is exported to trading partners overseas.

Any of us would have recognised that, as with other animals, if there is a disease outbreak, keeping them all apart will be difficult anyway. Therefore, our aim should be the highest standard across thoroughbred and non-thoroughbred to ensure that as far as is humanly possible we do not have disease here. I hope that Horse Racing Ireland and HSI already co-operate. It seems to me that they are saying it is more likely to be an issue with the non-thoroughbred sector than the other side. I hope the chairman of HSI might give this committee his view on whether disease outbreak is more likely in the non-thoroughbred sector and what it is doing to ensure there is no outbreak of disease among non-thoroughbreds.

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