Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 4 May 2023

Public Accounts Committee

Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine - 2021 Financial Statements
Fishery Harbour Centres

9:30 am

Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

All of it relates to horse racing. I am just talking about horse racing right now. It attracts significant inward investment. With regard to horse ownership in Ireland, 1,988 horses are owned by 1,600 non-Irish owners, with fees and expenditure just from those horses amounting to €28 million. That is all going into the rural economy.

There was a similar exercise undertaken on greyhounds. I will come back to the Deputy with the year. The figures were more modest. I think there were 4,000 people depending on the sector for employment.