THE Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has allocated the sport horse sector €5.45 million in Budget 2024. This is an increase of €250,000 on the 2023 funding (€5.2 million).

The funding is split between the governing body, Horse Sport Ireland, who operate the studbooks for the Irish Sport Horse and Irish Sports Pony, Irish Draught, Irish Cob and Irish Part-bred Cob and national breeding services for the industry, and the Irish Horse Board who won the tender for marketing services which commenced on January 1st of this year.

Answering a question from The Irish Field at the DAFM press briefing in Government Buildings on Tuesday morning, Minister Charlie McConalogue confirmed the figure, commenting: “In relation to Horse Sport Ireland and the sport horse sector, there are tenders in place in relation to services and that funding for next year will be €5.45 million.”

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Martin Heydon, added that the Budget reaffirms the Government’s commitment to the racing and breeding industry. “We have seen that commitment in the last year in terms of the equine sector now coming in under Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS) for the first time which has been very welcome.”

For 2023, Horse Sport Ireland was allocated €4.4 million of the €5.2 million budget, while the Irish Horse Board received €800,000 to carry out their activities. A DAFM spokesperson told The Irish Field: “The allocation for the services provided by both HSI and the IHB for 2024 has been increased to a total of €5.45m (up by €250k).”

However, they said they could not confirm if the extra funding would be split in the same proportion as 2023.

Tenders

A procurement process took place in 2022 for the delivery of services to the sport horse industry. Almost a year ago to the day, the Irish Horse Board won the tender to provide national and international marketing services to the sector. This decision by the Department of Agriculture to split the breeding services and marketing tenders, both previously held by Horse Sport Ireland, prompted the governing body to file a judicial review.

In December 2022, HSI announced it was dropping the judicial review. For their part, HSI was successful in retaining the tenders for the studbooks and National Breeding Services.

Pre-budget submission

Horse Sport Ireland had sought an increase of €1.5 million in Budget 2024, outlining four key investment objectives in their submission.

They included an increase in funding for HSI’s National Breeding Services schemes and initiatives, including new schemes (€500,000); its Integrity Programme, including National Anti-Doping Programme for young horses (€150,000); Genetic Improvements in the Irish equine industry (€250,000) and Grant in Aid (€600,000). HSI declined to comment on this week’s Budget allocation.

HSI is also funded by Sport Ireland, the authority tasked with the development of sport in Ireland. That allocation will be announced in early 2024.

In 2023, HSI received €1 million from Sport Ireland via the National Sport Policy funding for National Governing Bodies, an increase of €25,000 on the previous year.

TAMS III uptake

The Irish Field asked the DAFM what the uptake on the first tranche of TAMS III, which had a June 2023 deadline, has been. A spokesperson said: “There were 154 applications for Equine Investments in tranche 1 of TAMS III with 342 investments ranging from post and rail to feed stores to lung rings.”

DAFM funding

Sport Ireland NGB funding*

*High Performance funding and specific initiatives not included