Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is always going to be a contested space, because no matter how it is sliced and diced, there will always be people within a sector saying it should be done this way or that way. It is about getting the balance right in relation to how that is done so that all types of grassroots, be it farmers, trainers or owners, are supported, all the way right up to having top-class races as well that compete internationally. It is about striking that balance. Given how it has been done over the past 20 years or so, and looking at how healthy our sector is, the employment it creates, the involvement in it, and how it compares with any sector internationally, I believe that is a sign it has been done pretty well and the structure has worked pretty well. I want to look at what happened in 2021, which is the last full year we have. The Horse Racing Ireland fact book for 2021 shows there were 394 fixtures - actual race meetings - with 8,700 individual runners. Of these horses, 25% won at least once over the course of the year. More than 6,000 of the individual runners, the horses, won prize money at some stage. That equates to around 69% of individual runners. It was 70% the year before. About 70% of individual runners won some prize money.