Mr. Greg Broderick:

If a person hears that a horse has been sold for a certain amount of money, he or she might ignore it. If he or she hears it twice, three times or four times, however, he or she might be encouraged to get involved in breeding the type of horses that can attract that type of money. I attend the foal sales at Goresbridge and Cavan. I can assure the committee the business is flying. Breeding showjumping horses is currently one of the best businesses across Europe in which a person can be involved. People in Ireland need to understand this and to not be afraid to invest in it. When I go to the foal sales, I meet farmers and breeders. I have noted a disconnect between them. They do not get to meet enough of the top riders because they are not in the country. Some of the foals are not well enough bred and so they are being sold for small amounts of money and this is upsetting the farmers and breeders. As stated, if we had better facilities and prize money, we would be able to keep the better riders in the country. We do have the best riders in the world. If we put on bigger and better shows, some of them will come here and that will raise the bar. There is massive potential in this area. We need to invest in the facilities and prize money. As I said, that would raise the bar. If breeders see a better standard of horse being produced and sold for more money they will get behind it.

As we were coming into this meeting there was an online auction underway in Belgium for embryos from some of the good mares in Europe. The price for one of the embryos was set at €48,000. If that happened once or twice in Ireland, people would get behind the industry and instead of all of the Irish lads riding horses bred in the Netherlands, Belgium or wherever, they could want to ride the Irish horses. Ireland is the best place in the world to raise a horse. We have the best land and we are great horse people. The industry needs a helping hand to raise the bar.