Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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That is the role Horse Racing Ireland has. It is made up of representatives from across the sector. As a State we look at trying to give consistent funding that allows it to develop. Within Horse Racing Ireland the objective year on year is to assess the success of what is happening and engage with the Department around funding as well. The capacity is there to adjust that year on year. It is important for that to be consistently reflected on. It is also important we have the balance right. There were around 3,000 individual races last year. Out of those 3,000 individual races, 2,600 of them had prize money of €25,000 or less. There were 94 of the 3,000 races that had prize money of more than €100,000. Given how it is spread across all of the races, obviously you cannot, nor should you, be looking to control who wins these races. That is a matter for the horses and the quality of the horses.