Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and I second the motion. It is necessary at the outset that I would declare my interest in the sector. As is well known and has been put on the record previously: I am a farmer who owns horses; I am a director of Kilbeggan Racecourse, one of the smallest racetracks in the country; and I am a former chairperson of same.

The horse and greyhound racing industries have a special place in Irish life and a fundamental position within Irish sport. They are crucial for our economy, intrinsic to our identities and landmarks in our social and cultural heritage. There is an undeniable passion and enthusiasm for these sports across the country. An important pillar of Government policy is to ensure that the horse and greyhound racing industries achieve their maximum potential and in doing so contribute to economic and social development over a wide geographical area. More broadly, the Irish equine breeding and racing industry is extremely competitive internationally.

Given the wide geographical dispersal of these two industries, they are important to the achievement of more balanced regional economic growth. In this context the considerable contribution these industries make to rural economic activity and employment must be acknowledged. Government funding presents an excellent opportunity to yield a high return for its investment, leading to a flow of income through the rural economy, thereby providing widespread benefits for our society. The provision of Exchequer funding has helped Ireland to become a world centre of excellence for horse racing, greyhound racing and breeding. For those reasons I welcome and support the funding.

I will give some further information that we discussed. As the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and the House are aware, this fund was brought to the Oireachtas joint committee last week. It was the subject of widespread and open discussion and a lot of issues were raised. It received the full approval of the committee by the end of the deliberations. I am conscious of having made statements on this in the committee less than a week ago and then coming here to say the same thing but they are two different forums so it is not repetitive. The example I gave in the committee that I would be familiar with and aware of is as follows. There is debate about these two sports but to me they are industries as much as sports, and maybe even more industries than sports. There has been debate about the special treatment these sports get through this funding, as opposed to other sporting bodies or sectors.

I compliment the Minister and welcome the advancements and improvements that have been made in horse and dog welfare in recent years. As a small racetrack, Kilbeggan Racecourse received mandatory instruction on the developments and improvements we had to make to meet the demands of horse and animal welfare.Although we are a small organisation in a rural area, we do not qualify for sports capital funding or any other funding for these developments. If we do not do them, our licence will be withdrawn and we will not be able to hold races. We have no choice in the matter. A large portion of the funding we are discussing today is filtered through by HRI to the smaller tracks in the form of grant aid, similar to what other organisations receive through sports capital funding, for us to complete these projects. The CCTV cameras that were installed at every track were entirely funded by HRI. That is just one example of where this money is being spent and how important it is to the racing industry, as I would call it, as opposed to sport. It highlights how difficult it would be for the industry to survive without this funding.

I wish to highlight an aspect of horse racing that is seldom mentioned on occasions such as this, and that is that we are an all-Ireland body. Horse Racing Ireland and horse racing, not unlike the IRFU, are pioneers in that regard. We hear a lot of discourse about people's aspirations in respect of the entire island. This is a prime example of a shared island. This funding plays no small part in the promotion of Downpatrick and Down Royal racecourses and promoting an all-Ireland industry. It is important for that point to be made.

I will not rehash all the figures to which the Minister referred with regard to employment and economic return but the vital point that needs to be made and cannot be stressed enough in these situations is where this money is being spent and where the benefits of this money are most felt, namely, in the rural heartlands of Ireland. These are areas that will never have investment from a multinational or another industry coming in. There are racehorse owners and trainers but there are also the people who supply them with food and fuel and who meet their transport needs. A large number of people in rural Ireland benefit from the racehorse industry in particular, but also the greyhound industry. It can be supplementary to other means or methods of farming. If a farmer can sell hay to a horse trainer, that is a bonus to supplement and complement income from other farming practices. Without those added bonuses and extra income, things would be a hell of a lot worse off, for farmers in particular, in many rural parishes.

There are a couple of issues that come up for debate every year when it comes to funding for the horse racing sector. The first is improvements to the national equine centre and the projections for same, and the second is the provision of a second all-weather track for Tipperary. Both those projects will be large structural investments that may require funding over and above the amount of money we are discussing today. I ask the Minister to give us a progress report on those projects from his perspective.