Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 2 October 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Challenges Facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (Resumed)
5:30 pm
Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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When HSI came before the committee to discuss licensing, I had a major go off it because it is totally not professional in the way it does its job in that regard. This is what I hear back from constituents who are involved in the sport horse industry. I am interested in Mr Hanly's exchange with Senator Boyhan. I thought it was a little frosty. I want to tease the matter out a bit more. During the four or five days of the showjumping event at the RDS, what is the process with HSI regarding drug testing? Can it not just walk in and say it wants to test horse A, B, C and D in this class and in the 3 p.m. tomorrow class it wants to test horse A, B, C and D, and so on over the course of the event? Why does it have to go to the RDS? Why does the RDS have to prearrange that it is only allowed to test this class, that class or whatever? At an all-Ireland final or any intercounty fixture, doctors can walk into the dressing room and say they want to test this, that or the other player. They can be held up for another two hours depending on a urine sample or whatever it is. Why is it not the same at the RDS?