Mr. Barry O'Connor:

I do not speak for Horse Sport Ireland. I believe its new chairperson, Mr. Joe Reynolds, will be making a presentation, so it would be more appropriate for him to answer that question.

We have meandered with our purposes for years. I have never heard a Minister, a Department official or a head of any administrative body talk about jobs and exports, which is interesting. I did some research and watched some old tapes of people making presentations here. Most people have those figures. We are a very old industry but we have done it ourselves, as individuals. It is time for us to come together and harness that for the good of the Exchequer and of all the people involved. We have talked about the high end of sport, high-end international show jumpers and high-end prize money. High performance sport encourages local activity and encourages people to get involved and to participate. However, if one is granting money to a centre, there is a tie-in. In the Netherlands, when the local authority gave money to the local centre, it had to employ local people and give jobs locally, for example, the part-time jobs that arise when there are events. There was buy-in from the centre to the local area and from the local area to the centre. That would be very important going forward.