Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 13 July 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Alleged Issues in the Horse Racing Industry: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Brian Kavanagh:

I will take that. To the best of my ability to answer the question, the Curragh gallops are owned by a company called Curragh Racecourse Limited, which is a separate company. They operate the gallops for two types of trainers. The first are trainers who are based on the Curragh and train their horses there all year round and the fees per horse are collected through the HRI client account system. The second are trainers who do not base themselves on the Curragh but come and use the gallops on a per diem basis. They bring horses to work because of the variety of gallops. Their fees are also collected on the basis of dockets and information that is returned by the trainer when he or she uses the gallops and processed as a charge on the trainer's account through HRI. As best I can confirm, the fees are processed that way. I am not responsible for that area but that is my knowledge and understanding of the system.