Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for taking this Topical Issue matter. We know - and are due to vote on it shortly in this Dáil - that every year, the State gives about €90 million in public funds to the horse and greyhound racing industry. We know that about €70 million of that goes to Horse Racing Ireland, HRI. What is new are the figures. Thanks to an answer to a parliamentary question I tabled, we know how much of that goes to prize money. Some 70% of that €70 million goes to prize money – approximately between €40 million and €45 million. In answers that I have just gotten back from HRI, that to compares with about 7% that goes to animal welfare.

In reality, there is a massive transfer of public money to a small number of multimillionaires who get it tax-free and win it in the form of prize money. That is what is happening in black and white. One can look at the most recent HRI factbook for 2021. The top four winners were J.P. McManus, Michael O’Leary, John Magnier and Michael Tabor. They are all multimillionaires and none of them paid tax on that money. If one goes broader than that, the top ten owners won €11.8 million in one year. This money is not going to the poorly paid people within horse racing. It is going to already super wealthy individuals. One can look at the various races and who is winning. The prize money is concentrated among small number of people who are already very wealthy.

Compare this amount of money with what is spent on other things. Compare it in terms of sports. I know those people who are winning it and the Minister do not like this comparison. However, the total core funding that Sport Ireland gives out on a yearly basis is €15 million, which is for the GAA, the FAI, the IRFU, Swim Ireland, the Special Olympics, Athletics Ireland, HRI, which even gets a bit of that money, and a range of other organisations. That is €15 million altogether compared with €70 million in public money that goes to the horse racing industry, the vast majority of which is used for prize money that ends up in the hands of already extremely rich people. Compare the €70 million to the half of that that is spent on domestic violence refuge shelters and a similar amount of money that is spent in terms of the National Park and Wildlife Service.

At any time of year and in any given context, it would be unconscionable to have such a giveaway of public money to already extremely rich individuals tax-free. However, to have this continuing at a time of a deep cost-of-living crisis when one in three families is suffering from energy poverty and then, in reality, some of their taxes ending up in the hands of multimillionaires who face no cost-of-living crisis whatsoever, is absolutely scandalous. It is ironic we are having this discussion on the day that the Government launched gambling regulation. Why is the betting duty going to the horse and greyhound racing industry as opposed to tackling problem gambling?

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