Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 20 September 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion
Mr. Ronan Corrigan:
It has put a huge cost on top of anybody travelling and, therefore, travelling to the UK now, there is an extra €1,000 straight away. There is a lot of extra bureaucracy in doing it. We have things like carnets to deal with. We have things like tariffs and licences to deal with. We have to travel across the UK whether we like it or not for animal welfare so we have to deal with them. There were exclusions in place that have now lapsed. They lapsed without anybody really knowing they were lapsing. Again, this comes back to this joined-up mechanism of the affiliates not always knowing what is going on because we are not told. We find out about it too late to do anything about it whereas if we have people in the room who know what is going on, we can pre-empt these things. We can save people money, hardship and heartache. We have the best athletes in the world in equestrianism. We have the best animals in the world. We produce them very well. All we really want to do is produce them better and do it collectively.