Seanad debates

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Adjournment Matters

Horse Racing Industry Development

7:55 pm

Photo of Denis LandyDenis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I wish to acknowledge the importance of Irish-Chinese trade, which is currently worth €8 billion per annum. I compliment the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who led a trade delegation to China of 127 representatives of the agri-food and equine industries. China has a population of 1.3 billion and we have successfully established a partnership in equine excellence with China. An equine centre has been set up in Tianjin, the third largest city in the country, with a population of 12 million, at a cost of €2 billion to the Chinese authorities. We hope to export up to €40 million worth of animals and animal feed to China as a result of this over the next three years. Coolmore Stud in Tipperary has been set up as the partner for this equine centre, which is a very good news story. However, I wish to draw attention to the issue of the half-bred sports horse, three-day eventing and pony trade, which does not seem to be included as part of this Irish-Chinese initiative. I would like the Minister to provide some information as to the feasibility of examining this trade with China to determine if there is an opportunity for further exports and an opening up of trade in this area.

Currently there are 300 professional horse clubs in China, of which 16 are full-time professional clubs. These clubs currently use warm-blood horses mainly imported from the Netherlands which, incidentally, has quarantine rights for the entire world for export into China. There is an opportunity here for the Irish equine industry to open up trade with China and rebuild this particular industry nationally. In the past five years, as the Minister knows, this industry has taken a severe hammering. Prices have dropped by over 100% in some cases. Generally speaking, the people in this industry are mainstream farmers who keep a number of horses, brood mares and so forth for breeding purposes. This helps them to increase their incomes on an annual basis but in recent times this trade has completely collapsed. The Connemara pony trade has also collapsed, as has the three-day eventing trade. There is an opportunity here and I ask the Minister to respond to my request that funding for a feasibility study be made available, either through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine or through Leader companies. I look forward to the Minister's response.

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