HSI dropping Judicial Review proceedings

HORSE Sport Ireland is dropping their Judicial Review into the decision by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to award a tender to the Irish Horse Board.

A brief press statement from HSI yesterday (Friday) confirmed this legal matter was no longer being pursued.

“Horse Sport Ireland confirms that it is no longer challenging the proposed award of a tender regarding the provision of marketing services for the sport horse sector in Ireland. HSI have no further comment to make at this time,” said the statement.

The Irish Horse Board recently won the marketing tender, which was one of four tenders relating to studbook services, advertised by DAFM in January. HSI won the other tenders and mounted a legal challenge over the decision to award the lucrative multi-million euro marketing tender.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department said they were ‘unable to comment’ on the matter at present.

Chairman of the Irish Horse Board, Tiernan Gill, told The Irish Fieldyesterday (Friday): “We are delighted to have been awarded the tender and we are delighted that this [Judicial Review] is not going ahead. We are very open to working with whoever, we think the horse board can bring a lot to it and be more involved.

“We have a lot of very passionate members and we want to work on their behalf and we want to work with HSI as well. We are there to work on the breeding and production of horses. That’s what we want to do and things have never been better and that’s not being highlighted enough.

“There is a lot of good things happening. We are available to sit down with Horse Sport Ireland anytime.”