Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

The regulation of the horse racing industry is an important function, although there is a certain paradox in the idea of horse racing being an industry. I am uncomfortable about the misuse of animals to generate profit. I am from Newbridge, County Kildare. I grew up beside the Curragh and knowing horses and horse racing, and respecting horses and other animals, is part of my DNA. The point has often been made that elite race horses are treated better than many human beings in terms of their standard of living and the care and attention they receive. While that is in part true, elite athletes pay an enormous cost for their dedication to their sports and, unlike humans, horses do not necessarily have a say in the activity.

We must be balanced. While horse racing generates revenue and is an industry which makes multi-millions of euro every year, the nuclear and arms industries are also industries, but ones to which many people object on ethical grounds. Creating employment in itself is not reason enough for an activity to exist, and we must be balanced when we deal with these issues. I would like to propose some points that have not come up in the debate so far.

Horse racing is often cruel and unpleasant. Although we call it a sport, it leads to dreadful injuries for horses which race and, inevitably, leads to the slaughter of horses that do not make the grade. Sadly, there was rampant overbreeding of horses during the boom years, and, when the crash hit, these horses were slaughtered in their thousands. Some 4,618 thoroughbreds were slaughtered in licensed abattoirs in 2011 and God knows how many thousands were slaughtered in registered knackers' yards. In 2012, some 24,362 horses of all kinds were slaughtered in Ireland. The problem I have with the Bill is that there is no provision to deal with the overbreeding of race horses. Like everything else, the market dictates and decides. It is a missed opportunity to put measures in the Bill.

According to Animal Aid in the UK, approximately one in every 37 horses which start a season’s racing will have perished by the end of it. They die as a result of a racecourse or training injury, or are killed because they are deemed no longer financially viable. Some 82% of flat race horses older than three years of age suffer from bleeding lungs, that is, exercise induced pulmonary haemorrhage, which can cause blood to leak from the nostrils. Some 93% of horses in training have four gastric ulcers, and the condition gets progressively worse. This is the cost to horses of our horse racing industry. When these horses are retired, their conditions and welfare improve. I would have liked if this Bill had paid more attention to the fate of retired race horses, which is often a dismal one.

It is disappointing that the Minister, who probably does not have the worst of reputations on animal welfare issues, did not seize the opportunity in the Bill to dedicate funds from the horse and greyhound fund for programmes to retrain and rehome former race horses. Maybe it is salvageable. I do not know why the opportunity was not seized, and the Minister should address it. The Irish Horse Welfare Trust runs the only such programme in Ireland, which is part funded by Horse Racing Ireland and the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association. However, with hundreds of race horses being retired every year, further funding could have ensured that none of the horses ended up abandoned, shot or slaughtered. Having dedicated themselves to the altar of profit for the two or three years during which they were racing, no horse should end this way. Given the millions of euro sloshing around in the horse racing industry, it is shocking that of the 401 horses seized by the ISPCA between 2008 and 2014, because they were living in conditions too atrocious to be left in, approximately 10% were thoroughbreds.

The Minister takes great offence at wanton cruelty to animals, particularly to horses. We should use the Bill to divert resources to deal with retired race horses. Given that the animal welfare concerns exist with regard to horse racing, I am surprised the Bill does not stipulate that somebody from an animal welfare background should sit on the board of Horse Racing Ireland. The Bill specifies that the chairman and members of the board will be appointed by the Minister, having regard to creating a balance between the different interests in the horse racing industry. It is very vague. Where are the interests of the horses? Horse racing and betting is a multi-million euro industry. The welfare of the animals which make it all possible must be factored in somewhere. It could be tightened up in the legislation.

Other Deputies have mentioned the fact that no specific provision is made for representatives of horse owners to sit on the media rights committee. Given that the media rights money paid to racecourses would not exist without owners, it is a legitimate enough point that they should be given some involvement in that regard. However, one of the areas that could be improved is the withholding of funds. This is an industry. It is all about profit, and money talks. Money influences whether unorthodox or unacceptable behaviour is addressed. While the Bill makes welcome provisions for the Minister to withhold funds to Horse Racing Ireland or Bord na gCon under certain circumstances, for example, if they fail to furnish accounts, it does not go far enough and we should do much more.

Currently, Bord na gCon can decide to pass on public taxpayers' money to the Irish Coursing Club, for example, as it did in 2014 when almost €14,000 went to coursers for DNA sampling and €92,057 went to Sporting Press Limited, which is a subsidiary of the Irish Coursing Club. I find it absolutely reprehensible that taxpayers' money is being diverted for hare coursing. I am quite sure the overwhelming majority of Irish taxpayers agree with me that it is nauseating. This Bill does not provide for a sanction whereby funds can be withheld from Bord na gCon if they are to be used for these purposes. I suggest that this legislation is too good an opportunity to miss. Public funding for coursing is seriously sick in a society that claims to be civilised. We need to do more to use this legislation in the way I am advocating. In its response to the Indecon report, which was absolutely damning of Bord na gCon's activities, the board said it would make additional contributions to the retired greyhound trust "when resources permit". I would respond to that by saying "big deal - yippee" and asking whether they think they are great. To be honest, this Bill could have stipulated as a condition for the drawdown of funds from the horse and greyhound that a certain percentage of those funds should go to the retired greyhound trust and other welfare initiatives. I still think it is not too late for us to look at including such a stipulation. It is important that we sanction Bord na gCon for not submitting accounts - it is great because we all love exemplary accounting skills - but to be honest, sanctioning the board for poor animal welfare practices is far more serious and beneficial. It is something that needs to be built much more clearly into this legislation. If we are talking about regulation, we should put the animals that are the source of the profit in the first place at the heart of the Bill.

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