Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It might be timely to have a debate on the Irish horseracing industry as we face into the Irish Grand National on Easter Monday, which is the jewel in the crown of national hunt racing, with a prize pot of over €500,000. It is probably one of the biggest races in the history of national hunt racing. I am not sure what jurisdiction these Houses have over the Turf Club. It is a fairly arcane body and its members are touchy about their rights and procedures. I hesitate to mention them here. Members of this House might be aware of the recent controversy arising from the non-triers ruling which was brought in recently. Nobody likes to see a horse on a racetrack who is not running to his best ability, especially the punter who has backed the horse. There is very little of that in Irish racing today, but it used to be widespread when I was a youngster. It is no longer prevalent as racing has become far too professional a business for that. The new ruling has been brought in by the Turf Club which states that if a horse is not seen to be trying then its trainer or jockey can be fined. The infamous case recently was the Music Box case, which resulted in trainer Aidan O'Brien, one of our best and most professional trainers, being fined €10,000 and his jockey being put off the tracks for five weeks. That is that man's livelihood.

Not too long ago the Turf Club was warning jockeys about the excessive use of the whip. Where does one draw the line? How one times a horse and decides what chance it has or how to produce it in a race is something beyond all our imaginations here. It is not an easy thing to call, and horses have to be ridden sympathetically as well.

I ask the Leader to bring the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to this House when we can have a good discussion on this issue. It is mostly positive, but perhaps the gentlemen with the hard hats might answer a few questions.