Sir, - I would advise you that I found Minister Hackett’s recent article in your paper to be misinformed and totally biased against the greyhound industry (“Greyhound link is threat to racing’s funding”, The Irish Field, Nov 23rd, p4).

In 2001 the late Joe Walsh, then Minister for Agriculture, and Charlie McCreevy, then Finance Minister, had legislation passed that the high street bookmakers had to pay an annual 1% levy on their turnover which was to be divided 80% to the horse racing industry and 20% to the greyhound industry.

Normal grants were then added to this fund. The government pay-out has now been increased to almost €100 million this year, with the vast majority coming from the levy which is now 2%.

There would be very scaled-down horse and greyhound industries today without the initiative introduced by Joe Walsh and Charlie McCreevy. Both industries are major contributions to our rural economy and, in turn, the Irish economy. I hope history recognises their vision and the extraordinary results achieved.

“Transformative”

Minister Hackett suggests that the association within the fund of horse racing and greyhound racing should be ended and suggests that this “will be transformative for the ability of the horseracing sector to make its case for Government funding”.

According to Minister Hackett this transformative outcome is because horse racing will no longer be “associated with the reputation and practices of an otherwise unrelated sector”.

Minister Hackett demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of where the funding comes from – the fund is mostly generated from a levy on bookmakers who generate turnover from betting on horse racing and greyhound racing.

It is a misconception to suggest that funding generated from a bookmakers shop that has turnover from hundreds of greyhound races every week is “unrelated” to the same funding generated from betting on horse racing in the same shop.

If you walk into a bookmakers’ shop today 90% of the pictures are horse and dog racing. The horse and greyhound industries have gained massively from the levy but so also have the thousands of persons employed by the various bookmaking firms.

The bookmaker contributions mostly, not general tax receipts, has meant that the Irish horseracing and greyhound industries are recognised as number one in the world.

Former chairman

I was chairman of the Irish Greyhound Board from 1995 to 2006. The first thing my excellent board did was to allocate 2% of all prize money to the Retired Greyhound Trust.

Since then, the various boards have massively increased their contribution to the Retired Greyhound Trust. I live in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar and I am amazed at the number of retired greyhounds I see being walked every day. They make great pets.

People who own, breed and train greyhounds care and love their greyhounds. In any sport there are a small minority who do not uphold the values of the much larger majority. That applies equally to horse racing and greyhound racing, but with the controls becoming more sophisticated they are the exception.

For Minister Hackett to advocate that greyhound racing should no longer share in the Horse and Greyhound Fund is misinformed and, dare I say it, if the greyhounds are jettisoned from the fund then it is only a matter of time before the levy is terminated altogether.

The people in Dublin 4 and 6 will be happy but our rural neighbours will be devastated, both socially and economically. There are 16 greyhound tracks in Ireland and Shelbourne Park has just enjoyed the best Irish Greyhound Derby in 20 years, both in greyhound quality and attendances, particularly young people.

The Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund, mostly funded by the bookmakers, has been an enormous benefit to both industries, and long may it continue.

Both industries are committed to treating horses and greyhounds with dignity and respect. This is what Minister Hackett claims to care about but having a policy of treating one as a threat to the other is a misinformed view and in my opinion would weaken both industries going forward. - Yours etc.,

Paschal Taggart,

Rathgar,

Dublin 6.