CHAIRMAN of the Sport Horse Alliance group, Barry O’Connor, told the Joint Oireachtas Agriculture Committee that they were not before them seeking tax breaks or subsidies.
Calculating that every sport horse generated at least €7,500 per year back into the industry, the estimated 20,000 sport horses generated an estimated spend of €140 million from “Dingle to Donegal”, according to O’Connor, who said the sport horse spend goes “right around the country.”
He said: “We will look after our product ourselves; we just want the Department of Agriculture to invest in our industry,” said the Malahide-based international sport horse agent and coach, in his opening remarks to the Agricultural Commitee in Leinster House on Tuesday.
“There is a lot of good news in our sector – our senior show jumpers won the gold medal (Europeans 2017), our WEG eventers won team silver (Tryon 2018); there was gold medals for the under 14s and Under 18s at Fontainebleau; there was three medals won in Lanaken for young horses and the ISH studbook is second in the world for eventing.
“We need €100 million over five years across the four main sections of training; competition; breeding and infrastructure grants. We need €30 million over five years to upgrade the country’s main five centres and lesser to the feeder centres as well. All of the centres need more prize money,” outlined O’Connor.
With many questions from the attending politicians about the role of the Alliance vis-a-vis Horse Sport Ireland, O’Connor gave a brief history of their establishment and told how, as a group, the Alliance liaises closely with and works with Horse Sport Ireland. “There is no rivalry,” he stated, stressing that any public monies would be solely channelled through the national governing body. Several times, O’Connor repeated to the politicians that he believed HSI would be making their own future presentation before the Committee.
On the issue of the Horse Racing and Greyhound Fund, O’Connor said: “Getting into that fund is not one of our goals. We would not want to be seen to be taking money from horse racing. That’s up to the Minister. We are trying to emulate what horse racing has done. It’s an unbelievable product. I don’t think we are proud of it enough. As three show jumpers, we are immensely proud of it,” he said.
JOBS AND EXPORTS
Summing up, O’Connor said: “We (as an industry) have meandered with our purpose for years. I never heard a Minister talk about jobs and exports in our sector. We are a very old industry and have done it all ourselves but it is time to come together and harness it for the good of all people.
"High performance sport encourages local people; it encourages participation. If granting money to a centre, then there is a tie-in. Local centres in Holland give jobs locally; there is a buy-in from the centre and also from the local area in the centre and that’s very important going forward.”
LOBBYING FORCE
Afterwards, O’Connor urged all those in the sport horse industry to find out who their TD is and loby them (https://www.whoismytd.com/), “ask them to contact Minister Creed now and explain what he/she will do for the sport horse sector."