Ms Elizabeth Headon:

The questions were germane and very relevant. I will start with the question on how detrimental a hard Brexit might be. As Mr. Shane O'Dwyer stated in the short term Britain will have to maintain good relations with Ireland and keep using our horses, which is very positive. There is a very benign, strong close relationship, but if it does become difficult to move horses. Some thoroughbreds, particularly if they are moving for racing, develop a condition called travel sickness from the stress of being in a horsebox while travelling and out of their normal surrounding. Not all horses are susceptible to it but some are and it can become quite serious and almost like a pneumonia type condition. That is a big risk for a valuable racehorse. We have many major UK owners who keep their horses in training in Ireland and can bring them to Cheltenham and to the big race meetings in the United Kingdom. One would be very worried that over time they may gravitate back to keeping their horses in Newmarket, with significant consequences for rural employment in Ireland. That would be very negative. The other consequence that would be negative over time would be on the breeding stock. Even though there is a small number of stallions, as Mr. O'Dwyer mentioned, they are the foundation of our industry and they must win a big race such as the Epsom Derby or major high profile races. The United Kingdom rather than France is seen as the proving ground for stallions because people turn towards the winner of the major races. Horses would have to make a longer journey to race in France and the United States.

I spoke recently to a person involved in transporting horses who told me that at present if he is moving a horse to the United Kingdom, he will have to think about it about two days beforehand.

If he is looking to move horses to America, which is also an English-speaking country, for the Breeders' Cup, which takes place in November, he will have to start getting through the paperwork in August. As we all know, the more paperwork is involved, the more costs are involved. In a worst case scenario, we could be looking at quarantine problems and the various associated difficulties. When a horse is in training, a great deal can happen in the four or five days before the race. The horse might not be as ready for the race as its trainer expected it to be. It is not easy to plan, or to be certain which horse will be going where and when. Problems like those I have mentioned can be extremely disruptive in such circumstances.

France has great racing. The French authorities have introduced funding structures that prioritise or incentivise French-bred horses. Irish horses are at a little bit of a disadvantage in that regard. The real disadvantage, as Senator Daly suggested, is that nobody is going to put a horse on a boat from Rosslare to Cherbourg. If a horse develops colic or gets some other kind of sickness while travelling by boat to or from France, it is not possible to take the horse off the boat to get to a vet. The option of going to a vet would be much more quickly available if the horse were being transported through the UK. These things do not happen very often. Racehorses are valuable animals and there is a lot riding on their success. People put years of effort into bringing them to the point at which they are ready to be raced. Given the risk of being out at sea for very long with a horse, it is really not workable to travel directly to France. Even if it is technically possible to avoid going through the UK, it is not really achievable in a practical sense. We must be able to transit through the UK if we believe racing in France is an attractive proposition.

I was also asked about our priorities. As Mr. O'Dwyer has said, it is positive that everyone who is looking at this issue is taking a very benign attitude to it. While this may be quite a hidden issue at present, if we reached a position where there were fewer Irish runners at Cheltenham, it would become much more visible and public very quickly and everybody would ask what was going on. They would want to know where the Irish horses were.

It was a little disappointing that our sector was not specifically mentioned in the Government plan for Brexit. We know there is a lot of interest in and support for the equine sector. It is up to the sector to propose workable solutions. I do not believe we will meet resistance to that. If Ireland does not keep saying that the huge issues which are arising do not need to be resolved in respect of thoroughbreds, things could become very difficult. As Mr. O'Dwyer said, the dream scenario is for us all to go back to where we were 11 months ago so that this does not happen. I am sure the committee is hearing that from everybody. If that is not possible, we need to work closely with our UK and French counterparts to put systems in place that will ensure the disruption is minimised as much as possible, particularly from a welfare point of view for the animals involved.