Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Members will have received recently a copy of the annual report of Horse Racing Ireland, which makes interesting and encouraging reading. It highlights again the contribution of the racing industry to the economy and the number of jobs involved in it, apart from the great image it creates for us abroad. I ask that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine come into the House to take us through the report, examine the positive aspects and the ways by which we could enhance and expand on them. The rural festival race meetings have huge turnovers. Everybody knows about the meetings at Punchestown, Leopardstown and the Curragh, but in my town of Listowel the turnover in one week in September was almost as much as the turnover at the Curragh for the entire year. These are issues that should be examined and the Minister might come into the House to do so.

I note that a small training stable not far from where I live pulled off a wonderful achievement at Royal Ascot yesterday when Charles Byrne who mostly trains national hunt horses beat all of the Arabs and the other big names with the million pound horses. It shows that if the right man has the right ammunition, he can do the business.