Mr. Brian Kavanagh:

The breeders were particularly affected by Covid-19 and, as I mentioned in replying to the previous question, by Brexit coming down the line. Last year the value of sales of horses in Ireland dropped by 35% from €165 million to €106 million. That was because the sales season was severely disrupted. As we said, a number of sales were relocated to England from Ireland, so Goffs and Tattersalls Ireland in Fairyhouse did not hold sales and they were relocated to England. We are concerned about the impact of Brexit on the Irish breeders and their ability to access the UK market. We will shortly launch a breeders' support scheme, which will support all breeders of Irish-bred horses through an incentive payment to the owners of those horses to encourage them to buy horses at Irish sales the following year. The incentive is to stimulate trade in the market and reinvigorate the sale of Irish-bred horses.