Mr. Jim Power:

I have. I remember being asked a question on a radio show many years ago about the preferential tax treatment for the thoroughbred sector. For once I said that I could not answer that question because I did not know the answer. I went away and did a lot of work on it. I looked at Coolmore Stud. I grew up in the neighbouring county to Coolmore Stud, which was just across the river. Coolmore is an incredible contributor to the local economy in south Tipperary. It is amazing. It is a world-class facility and it makes a huge contribution to the local economy such as paying premium prices to farmers for hay and straw. The advantage that the greyhound and the thoroughbred sector has is that they are very narrow and well defined sectors that have always had a very united voice. The sectors work together and it is one small and narrowly defined industry in both cases, whereas the sport horse sector consists of everything from a small equestrian centre in a rural village in Waterford to what we see in the Royal Dublin Society in August, and everything in between. That is the problem. There was never a united approach or a united voice. I worked very closely with Horse Sport Ireland in the compilation of this report. I spoke with them a lot throughout the whole process. I would be very surprised if Horse Sport Ireland had a problem with anything in this report. We are all on board and there is a much more united approach now. The restructuring of the board of Horse Sport Ireland is a major step in the right direction. I would hope that with a stronger voice and with a much more united approach, the sport horse sector would be able to go some way towards emulating the world-class industry we have in the thoroughbred sector. That should be the sort of utopian vision we have for the horse sport sector, at least from an external perspective looking in.