Dr. Meta Osborne:

I would like to address Deputy Martin Kenny's point about sport. What is often forgotten is that while racing is a wonderful sport, it is also an industry. The €64 million coming into the industry is like a stimulus package. The Irish racing and breeding industry is worth something like €1.1 billion to the economy. We have a strategic plan from the board of Horse Racing Ireland, HRI, whereby we hope to grow the figure to €2 billion. It is not just a case of taxpayers' money going one way; it is actually stimulating growth.

This industry, business and sport has been my life. We have a stud farm in County Laois which my husband and I started in 2002, just after the new board of HRI and the new funding model came into being. The development of our farm has been in parallel with what HRI has been trying to do. A framework has been put in place to give people confidence to breed and raise horses in this country. People talk about where the prize money goes and say it goes to wealthy individuals. In fact, it encourages individuals to keep horses in training and pay training fees which help to pay stable staff, vets and farriers and for feed. That is where the €1.1 billion comes from. As I said, it is a wonderful sport, but it is also a very important part of the rural economy. There are stud farms and training establishments, if not precisely in the Deputy's constituency, pretty much all over the country, certainly in areas where there might not be other employment opportunities. It is very important that we get the message across that this is a positive story. While there may have been lapses and we are here to express our regret about the,, we want to look forward and make sure, first, that they do not happen again, and, second, that we concentrate on our big job, delivering that sum of €2 billion.