Mr. John Osborne:

It is not oversight, as such. We have encouraged investment but we have not stepped into the breach in respect of the care and responsibility for individual horses on a day-to-day basis. We are not in a position to be that organisation. Some owners may take ill of the old slogan about a puppy being for life, not just for Christmas. In the case of horses, the responsibility for care on a day-to-day basis is down to the owner. We have tried to assist with this. Our function in the welfare space relies on the three pillars that we work towards. These are traceability, standards and safety nets. The Deputy will be familiar with traceability. We are very confident about our standards of care in the context of the care of racehorses throughout their lives from birth to the end of their racing careers. The safety-nets element considers what can happen to racehorses when their racing careers are over. That is why we have been so active in supporting Treo Eile, a not-for-profit organisation which promotes and facilitates second careers for racehorses. We also support the Irish Horse Welfare Trust, IHWT, which positions itself to rescue the small number of animals. At the moment it has ten thoroughbreds in its care out of a population of some 40,000 thoroughbreds on the island.