Mr. Arthur Cooper:

The French agencies have also offered us the opportunity to send a young person - who wants to get into horses - down to Grobois, a large training facility south of Paris. They will provide a week of education about trotting in France. They are supporting us to send young people there annually to learn more about that aspect of the sport.

Deputy Ferris mentioned the competition issue. It was interesting that at Horse Racing Ireland this morning we were talking about the Dundalk meeting. One of the bookmakers who was there that day elected to offer betting on the Curragh. He was also racing that afternoon. The problem was he did not take a bet. He actually said the bookmakers supervised it. They said he did not take a bet. It is totally separate, from a competition perspective, it is horses and gambling but it is a totally different coach and a totally different set of people who are involved, with the result that bookmakers could say they want to bet on it, as in the Curragh, but there is no interest from the said group of people.