Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On small tracks, there is an obligation through HRI to try to ensure a healthy sector across the board. This is an ecosystem. We have small trainers, small breeders and smaller tracks. All of that needs to be healthy for the overall sector to be healthy. That is something we expect HRI to work to, in terms of the parameters set out for it. We expect them to work to ensure a good spread. A lot of this comes through prize money and supporting prize funds at the different tracks to make sure they have horses running and to attract them in, as well as working with them from a capital investment point of view. Last year there were more than 388 fixtures, with total of just above 8,000 individual runners. Some 26% of these horses won at least one race across different race types. Approximately 5,500 individual runners won prize money at some stage. That equates to approximately 70% of individual runners. Of the 2,800 individual races, more than 2,400 had prize money of less than €25,000, with 113 having prize money greater than €100,000. There is a spread across the funding.

On capital investment, it is an obligation and part of the role of HRI to work with the different tracks on how they can partner to support the development and facilities of the different tracks. We will be having another engagement on Horse Sport Ireland in the coming weeks. The new board is in place there for more than a year. I am happy to go into that in more detail the next day.