Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important to consider the issue of harness racing in the context of the Sport Horse Alliance and Horse Sport Ireland. The harness racing people, with whom I have had engagement, as I know Deputy Penrose has, are very effective communicators and lobbyists for their sector, as the equine industry generally is. I salute that. They are a constituent member of Horse Sport Ireland. The Sport Horse Alliance is a lobby group for the sport horse sector, that is, more or less the showjumping sector, although I do not want to be prescriptive about that. The opening point I made is that there is never enough money. We have increased - nearly doubled, in fact - from 2014 the funding we give. In 2014 we gave €1.8 million to Horse Sport Ireland, and for 2019 the figure will be in the region of €3.5 million. This is a significant increase. We could spend multiples of it, but there is an important question here. Is it the core function of this Department to fund the high-performance end of the sports market? Horse Sport Ireland receives funding from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, and there is a question of the appropriate balance in this regard. I appreciate that this is a rural enterprise, that horses are reared on farms, etc., but there is the question of whether it is a core function of this Department to be involved in such a level of funding at that high-performance end or whether that is a function of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, from which Horse Sport Ireland also gets funding. We will engage with Horse Sport Ireland. We recently had the Indecon report on it. We said that once the governance structures were right, we would respond in terms of the allocation to it. I think we have in the context of the trajectory of its funding. However, it has a lot of ambition and many constituent members, some of whom work through Horse Sport Ireland, with others working outside it.

The harness racing industry is seeking very substantial capital investment. We received its draft five year plan for the industry on 12 October, which was after the budget for 2019 had concluded. This makes it difficult to make any substantial progress on the range of issues raised, which range from the track in Portmarnock to an alternative, which Fingal County Council may make available. The issues raised concern funding for staffing complement. Staff are not taken on for only one year; there is a recurring commitment. We need evidence of matching funds and governance structures. To be fair, this is an organisation that is trying to get off the ground. The funding we are allocating today is to HRI and Bord na gCon. They are subject to the Comptroller and Auditor General's scrutiny, etc., accounts and a board. This organisation has yet to get to that level of professional presentation. We are working with it. We funded the original Indecon report and the development of its strategy. We have funded the company by way of investment in various programmes and we continue to do so. We would like to see what else we could do, perhaps even looking at the stud book, which is an area where we might be able to operate. Is a racetrack development, for example, something that could be usefully explored under the sports capital programme rather than under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's core funding? It is a sports facility. These are issues we need to explore. As I said, we got a draft on 12 October, consideration of which is ongoing. I do not want to throw cold water over this, but it is not possible under the legislation to take it from the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund. We are trying to do this within the existing allocations as much as we possibly can, bearing in mind that the Sport Horse Alliance is one of a number of constituent members of Horse Sport Ireland, whose total allocation from this Department is €3.5 million. Harness racing's ask is a very substantial part of this total allocation in terms of what the cost might be of developing that facility, staffing complement, etc. We need to explore these matters in further detail and ensure that every step we take we are protecting the public interest and the public purse. That is important.

Deputy Cahill raised the issue of the single laboratory service, and Senator Lawlor raised the issue of the equine centre. There is probably the genesis of something there in terms of collaboration, and this could extend to the greyhound sector as well. Is investment made in things that are transferable? I hope to visit very shortly the equine centre. Therein is a requirement for very substantial capital investment. Can we explore a model whereby something akin to what happened with the Curragh might be partially funded by others as well as the State? That is important. Equally important, however, is the following question. If we put in that level of investment, can we get a return for everyone from what the equine centre does in terms of diagnosis, management, prevention and research and giving the industry here the international reputational standing it has because of a facility like the equine centre? Can we then use the expertise therein to assist, for example, the greyhound industry with its laboratory requirements, integrity and so on? We could see a useful collaborative approach to this. In education and training terms, are there things the broader equine sector needs to do that racing and the equine industry under HRI have done, such that we can leverage some benefit to other aspects? I have made this point on occasion to key stakeholders, that this should be explored in greater detail. I certainly see the equine centre as one area where this can deliver.

On-track bookmakers and the betting tax generally are not issues for this Department. On-track bookmakers certainly add colour to a race meeting. Mind you, these are the things most people bet on now. That is the reality, whether we like it or not. I certainly would like to see that tradition of on-course betting continue and racecourses and HRI, where possible, being able to assist with all the necessary supports, including soft supports outside of the tax system in terms of location, etc.

I think I have covered-----