Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If we went back a couple of years ago, that argument could have even been worse. There might have been an Aga Khan team with no Irish-bred horse. Our top riders are outsourcing the horses they want to ride. I just do not know how the industry can equate that angle. Mr. Corrigan sells very good horses for the international stage, yet our own best riders are not riding Irish-bred horses. I find that very hard to understand. He said earlier in his presentation that we should try to keep our best horses at home. I could not see how that would work in an economic sense because the man breeding his horses would want the best customer to buy them. I am a Tipperary man. There is a very good, thriving equestrian centre near me run by a very good businessman and excellent producer of horses. His business is really a joy to visit to see the way he is breeding stallions and advancing the breeding of his horses there. He has really come on in leaps and bounds in the past number of years. That is one thing I just cannot see. We have our own riders riding foreign horses and still we are saying that we do not want these horses to be sold on the open market. I cannot see that. If an American or German comes in and a top-class international horse can make very big money, I just cannot see how the two can be rationalised together. Now, I would love to see the situation. There are very wealthy people involved, definitely on the showjumping side at the moment. If the horse is good enough and the rider is there, those horses will stay at home. That balance will work itself out. We have to concentrate on breeding the animal, and we are breeding the animal. I think we will balance that out.

I will go back to last November when the board changed its format. How many board members were on Horse Sport Ireland at that stage?