Mr. Brian Kavanagh:

It is just that Deputy Carthy's screen freezes at the end of his question.

The idea is that it acts as a stimulus. Rather than just look at the narrow issue of prize money, it stimulates investment and encourages owners to have horses in training and to buy horses. It drives rural economic activity, the sales and the decision to have horses in training here. Regarding the link with the horse and greyhound fund, the Deputy is correct to point out the proximity of the figures, but they are not directly linked. It is not the case that we get X amount from the Government, so we put X into prize money and offer prize money of X amount. As the Comptroller and Auditor General mentioned, we have other sources of income as well. Prize money is the subject of competition internationally, particularly at the higher level where one is seeking to attract horses. We have been quite successful at this over the years, getting international owners to base their horses in Ireland rather than the alternatives there might be in France or the UK.