Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. While it may already be known, I want to put on record that I am chairperson of a rural Irish racetrack, namely, Kilbeggan racetrack, and I am a big breeder with one brood mare. Having said that, it will be obvious that I will be supporting the proposals here. Kilbeggan is a one-horse town but we have a racetrack and the vitality and the life that having that industry in our town provides for our community is unbelievable. I note all of the figures that have been quoted today about the number of jobs created in rural Ireland through both of those industries.

From our perspective, how it works with the majority of the HRI money, which goes for prize money, is that the racetrack has to match that funding. We have to come up with that money from sponsors within our community. Likewise, the majority of the money HRI spends goes to development and improvement grants, where they give grants of 40%. Again, we come up with 60% of the funding to match that.

With that in mind and with a view to the year that has been in it with Covid-19, some of those smaller racetracks, breeders and trainers are the big sufferers. I would like to see the Minister work with HRI and RCÉ in order that this money would filter down to the lower echelons of the industry. The development grants have completed and hopefully there will be a new tranche coming out. I ask the Minister that, along with HRI and RCÉ, to ensure that this money filters down. I mention the small breeder who would not be going to the big expensive stallion but to the lower quality horse, for which there is a market. The sales for that market were upset this year and some of those involved even moved to the UK. It would not have paid to go there. Those people are the big sufferers. I hope the Minister can work with both bodies to ensure that this money filters down, as has been said by previous speakers.

I have to comment on the debate to the effect that every year we come in here and we have members coming up with a punchline or a sound bite that is akin to selling the laying hen. The figures are there and of the €96 million that has been invested, €95 million is being returned in the betting tax and then the income, whether it is through tourism or through the jobs I have mentioned in rural Ireland, is unbelievable. We could take the money for one year and give it to one of these so called better causes that are mentioned every year but that would be like selling the laying hen. What do we do the following year when the 40,000 people employed between the two industries are on the dole and there is no tourism income? It is a fantastic investment in two seriously strong and important industries, not sports, in rural Ireland.

In the last Oireachtas, the Minister and I were both members of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, as it was then. We did a lot of work with the Greyhound Racing Act 2019 and we dealt specifically with animal welfare issues. I know RCÉ has given out expressions of interest for care homes.

Many people have applied for them, been inspected and ticked all the boxes, but only two care homes have been given full ratification or notification by RCÉ. When will more care homes be identified and registered?

We are short on time but if the Minister has time I ask him to elaborate on Brexit, which was mentioned in the report. This is an all-island industry and there are two racecourses in the North. What ramifications may there be for them going forward? The UK is our major market, along with the rest of Europe.