Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Today is the opening day of the Punchestown national hunt festival, which I suppose is Ireland's Cheltenham, and we wish it good weather. It seems to me to be an opportune time to ask for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, to come into the House to give us an overview of the Irish racing situation as he sees it. I would like to hear his views on the recent development whereby the television coverage of Irish racing has been signed over to an organisation called Racing UK, RUK, which will have exclusive rights to show Irish racing for the next five years from January 2019 onwards. This has been welcomed by Horse Racing Ireland and by the racecourse owners' association because they will be financial beneficiaries of this deal. That is important because they need that support, but it is very worrying to note the number of people who are very prominent in the horse racing business in Ireland who are expressing more concerns about this proposed monopoly situation.

At the moment a stay at home punter can watch racing live on television on two channels, namely, "At the Races" and RUK. "At the Races" is relatively cheap and can be bought as part of a normal Sky package. If one wants to watch RUK at the moment, one will pay €32 per month, or €350 for a yearly package."At the Races" will clearly be in difficulty now that it can no longer access Irish racing and there is every possibility it will fold. When this five-year deal is over, it looks like we will have a monopoly. RUK will control the relaying of Irish television and it will be able to charge what it likes. I am no great fan of Mr. Michael O'Leary but he is a fairly good businessman, and he states it has all the appearance of a stitch-up and a monopoly. He is very concerned, as indeed are horse owners and horse trainers such as Mr. Willie Mullins and Mr. Robbie McNamara, who have spoken out. The man who will be hit by this is the ordinary fellow, the stay-at-home punter who has his little couple of bob each way every day, and fellows such as myself who like to have an occasional punt and are prepared to pay for a service but will not pay through the nose for it. I ask that the Minister would come in and outline whether he has any concerns about this development. I would welcome that.