Mr. John Treacy:

We provided some assistance in regard to getting it started and also provided assistance to EFI at that time. It must be remembered that this was a Government initiative, supported by policy and ourselves. The reason it was done was because, at the time, EFI was broken and there was a lot of disquiet within the sport. Bringing the two pieces together was important. We got funding of €1.7 million in 2006 as part of the Estimates process, which was announced by the then Minister John O'Donoghue. That money went into the two organisations in 2007 to ensure there was a smooth transition of responsibility over to HSI. The board of the sports council was fully informed throughout the process. HSI became the governing body for equestrian sports at that time.