Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

There must be certainty that this vital measure will be taken.

The entire industry is in need of reform. Much of the money from horse racing goes directly into prize money. I have no difficulty with this principle. It is important that prize funds are sufficiently substantial to attract the big players. However, we are seriously out of kilter in this regard with our nearest neighbours in the United Kingdom, which is something the horse racing industry must examine. In a recession, current levels of prize money are not sustainable.

An issue that sometimes irritates people is that much of the prize money ends up in the hands of relatively few people, some of whom reside outside the country and are not caught up in any way in our tax net. In a recent analysis of the industry, commentators failed to explain why a State subvention is needed to support the fund. The reason is that the largest bookmaking operators have migrated their industries offshore for tax purposes. We discussed this issue at the committee meeting. It is rich of them to complain about the subvention to the horse and greyhound racing fund when they benefit so much from the industry but pay no betting taxes or levies on their profits. I appreciate the difficulties in restoring some part of these revenues to the State but it is an issue that must be addressed. If all the major players were to pay a 1% betting tax on all bets placed in the State, whether on the main street, via telephone or the Internet, we would have more than enough money to support the horse and greyhound racing fund and plenty of money for the development of other sports. The other anomaly is that the horse and greyhound racing fund is under the aegis of the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, while other sports are not being supported in the way they could and should be.

The Labour Party strongly supports the racing industry. However, in light of the economic situation - with massive cuts in sports funding, the failure of the Government to support industries such as SR Technics and the various cutbacks announced in the budget this week - we have serious reservations about the management and distribution of this funding. We are aware of the need to support the industry. In particular, we support the retention of jobs.

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