Mr. Brian Kavanagh:

It is not just the owners.

The breeders are the main people affected because they are selling these horses to UK owners and trainers and breeding the horses for the market but now barriers have gone up to accessing the market. It is a bit like the debate we might have seen on television about fisheries or any of the other areas. We are very keen to minimise those barriers. Many British breeders send horses over here to be bred to Irish stallions and it is a valuable source of income both for the stallion owners, the farms on which the mares stay and the veterinary services provided to them. There is a host of economic activity that was very simple before Christmas and is now more complicated.

We are getting excellent support on this from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and we are working our way through it, but there are big challenges. It is a real amber light for us and our industry with the impact that Brexit is having on the market for Irish horses in the UK.