Mary O’Halloran, Coolbawn, Nenagh, Co Tipperary.

Madam, It is evident from the round of recent meetings held throughout the country there is much debate and enthusiasm for putting a plan together for the horse industry. I wish to ask Minister Coveney and HSI chairman Pat Wall to put the issue of Irish Draught breeding high on their agenda once more.

To its detriment, there is no clear and certainly no uniform plan for the future of Irish Draught breeding. The Irish Draught Breeders Association is dissolving into fragments and the Irish Draught Society is an even smaller group, whose proposal to establish a separate studbook for Irish Draughts may well be the way forward but it must carefully incorporate all breeders fairly if it is to succeed.

For good reason, the majority of breeders and producers refuse to join either organisation. Thus, the findings of the task force will be unrepresentative and probably only express the opinions of the people around the table and not the wider margins and the actual people on the ground.

For a number of years now Irish Draught breeding has been at crisis point. We have lost valuable pedigrees and older classical-type stock through slaughter, while our best fillies and mares went abroad.

Unfortunately, there has been no obvious improvement to the quality of our Irish Draught herd and we may even be losing characteristics that cannot ever be replaced. Dropping foal numbers to two hundred pure bred Irish Draughts per year is not the solution.

We need one organisation with one voice. The recent mare inspections have brought reports of incorrect readings of bone measurement and dubious fence heights. If we cannot take ourselves seriously and ask these difficult questions as breeders how can we expect hierarchy to do so?

As a past member of the old Society and a past member of the Irish Draught Horse Breeders Association also, I cannot see a way forward without the intervention of the Department of Agriculture and a serious effort on behalf of HSI to finally put breeders back in control through one representative body.

Those who have no interest in Irish Draughts per se are underestimating the importance of the Irish Draught in the foundation of sport horse breeding. We only have to ask ourselves one question – is Irish Draught horse breeding in a better place since the split in 2008 – yes or no?

Let those carrying grievances from the past stay firmly in the past and that includes the recent past. Let’s move on.