Sir, - Increase the taxation on the betting industry and ring-fence the revenue for racing is the often repeated solution to the funding problem of Irish racing. The idea being to raise enough to eliminate the reliance on the Horse and Greyhound Fund.

We are a small country with a large racing/bloodstock industry of which we are justifiably proud. An idea of the relative size can be gleaned from a couple of interesting facts. Per head of population, the cost of running our racing industry is approximately four times that of its British equivalent while our foal population is between 15 and 20 times larger.