Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am trying to get to the heart of whether Exchequer funding is having the biggest impact. To repeat Mr. Kavanagh's figures, 92% of horse trainers have five or fewer mares. Looking at the distribution of the prize money in terms of flat racing, and I believe these figures are from 2019 as well, the top trainer managed to secure 25% of the overall prize money. The top ten trainers secured 63.29% of the prize money. In the case of the national hunt, the top trainer drew down 17% and the top ten trainers drew down 63% of the funding. The flat all-weather did a little better in terms of balance, but the funds were much smaller. Some 46.23% of owners drew down the overall amount of the money in terms of the top ten. One can see there is great disparity and understand why some would question whether the model of front-loading the prize money is the best way to make the economic impact Mr. Kavanagh rightly said this money can deliver, if it is utilised correctly. It appears that the model in place will ensure that the big trainers, who do great work and are great ambassadors, will keep getting bigger while the stables of five or fewer mares will remain very much bit players. There will not be much scope for them to expand because it is very hard to break into this prize money, which would allow them to have the same resources as their competitors.