HORSE Racing Ireland’s marketing department has defended its decision to pay RTÉ presenters five-figure sums to promote racing at the Cheltenham Festival.

The matter was raised in Dáil Éireann this week during a discussion on the earnings of RTÉ staff and contractors.

North Kildare TD Catherine Murphy told the Dáil: “Through a recent set of parliamentary questions I tabled about influencers, I discovered that some people can earn quite a lot of additional money. Doireann Garrihy was paid €20,000 for promoting the Cheltenham horse racing festival by the publicly funded Horse Racing Ireland, incredibly for promoting an event in a different jurisdiction.”

Garrihy is a radio and television presenter with a large following on social media. During the 2022 Cheltenham Festival, she recorded a series of interviews with Irish racing personalities.

Asked to explain the background to the promotion, HRI’s marketing director Paul Dermody said: “The promotion of Irish racing – which is the legislative remit of HRI – takes many forms and channels depending on the audience demographic we are trying to speak to.

“In 2022, HRI engaged Doireann Garrihy to showcase Irish racing to her many hundreds of thousands of social media followers. Our partnership with Doireann saw her go behind the scenes at Dublin Racing Festival with her posts in advance of that Festival delivering click-through ticket sales that more than covered the cost of engaging her.

“It revealed a new audience for Irish racing and the decision was taken to again link up with Doireann ahead of the Cheltenham Festival in 2022.

“Cheltenham’s popularity makes it the greatest customer acquisition opportunity of the year for companies operating in the horse racing space, and delivering engaging content is key to connecting with audiences.

“In that regard the partnership with Doireann delivered very well for Irish racing and our objectives of increasing awareness, interest and appeal.”

HRI engaged comedy duo The 2 Johnnies in a similar role at Cheltenham this year.