Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In his contribution, Deputy Penrose highlighted the different returns that racecourses get from race meetings. A weighting is applied based on a meeting's status or grading rather than on the number of meetings that a course holds. As the Minister knows, however, it is the small racecourses with the large numbers of people passing through their gates that keep the industry alive, support small trainers and encourage owners of one or two race horses. They keep interest going, as those who go to local racecourses in, for example, Roscommon also go to the large festivals in Galway, Listowel and so on once or twice per year. They are crucial to maintaining, developing and promoting the industry, yet they believe that the squeeze is being put on them by the current legislation. The Bill as drafted will give them even less control.

As Deputy Penrose stated, there is a question mark over whether the Bill infringes on the property rights of racecourses. Horse Racing Ireland, HRI, has a dual role in this matter. It is the racing industry's overall authority and is an owner of some racecourses. Funnily enough, those seem to be the courses that, alongside Galway and a number of other courses, are getting the lion's share of the funding. Smaller racecourses believe that they are being squeezed in this regard. I hope that the Minister can table an amendment on Committee Stage to assure local racecourses - the Roscommons, Ballinrobes, Sligos and Kilbeggans - that this agreement will not just be thrust on them and they will not be bullied into reducing their number of meetings or considering closing. Enough have closed in recent years. These ones survived the economic recession because they had local networks of people who traditionally attended their race meetings. They need to be supported through the fair, equitable and transparent distribution of media rights funds. This is important.

I also wish to raise the issue of the sport horse industry, particularly as regards animal welfare and feral horses. These problems have implications for the horse industry, which is worth approximately €150 million per annum in exports, making it a significant export industry that should be supported and developed. In recent years, there has been a slippage in standards in the sport horse industry. Professor Paddy Wall is doing a great deal of work on this front and has a lot of respect from the industry. He and the people around him will turn the industry around and develop it.

There is a problem at its lower end, though. A substantial number of horses have still not been chipped and do not have passports. We have an issue with stray animals. Not only are they a risk in terms of being reservoirs for diseases such as strangles, but they are also a risk to human life. The issue has died down to a certain extent since coming to the fore a few years ago during a fodder crisis that not only affected our cattle industry and the rest of the agricultural sector, but also the horse industry, in that there was no outlet for those animals at the lower end of the scale.

We need to examine what is happening in the beef industry and determine how to use some of the tools that it has developed. For example, the beef data and genomics scheme is a good one, although it could probably have been explained better initially. Thankfully, more farmers have joined it than originally withdrew. I hope that it has got over the initial problems with communication and confusion. We have a beef technology adoption programme, BTAP, and a sheep technology adoption programme, STAP. Perhaps it is time that we consider establishing the same discussion groups in the horse industry that have proven so successful in the dairy industry and, more recently, the beef and sheep industries. We must do something to improve the breeding strategy in the sport horse industry and increase standards across the board.

Consider the example of suckler cows. Our beef industry was on its knees, as the most important part of the cow during the period of coupled payments across Europe-----

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