Ms Marguerite Kavanagh:

When we get sight of the figures we see that an extraordinary amount - three quarters of the budget - goes to high performance director fees so only a quarter is there for entry fees and athletes. We are on the fringes of Europe. Some of our athletes have to go to the UK. It takes 17 hours to get a horse from here over there and then they have to go from there on to Europe again. The horses have to be rested and so on. There is huge expenditure in that. The riders are really struggling. They are struggling to keep their high performance horses going. We need to give them the financial support. If we do not get sight over the budgets, we cannot plan. It is so important. Under the terms of reference of high performance groups, we are supposed to be able to review the programme against the spend but we are not being allowed that as stakeholders. Our plan in dressage did not work this year and it has not worked in the past two or three years. We need more oversight and we need to be treated more respectfully as important stakeholders. We are a voluntary organisation with one paid member and we are running the sport in Ireland. Surely we should be entitled to be able to come to the table and be valued as stakeholders, but we are not.