IF ever there was a gaping disparity that urgently needs to be addressed, it’s the enormous gulf that currently exists between the Irish Sport Horse industry with an estimated contribution to the Irish economy of over €816m and the mere €4m in funding allocated to Horse Sport Ireland. HSI received just under €4m in funding in 2016 and marginally over it in 2017.

The updated figures released by HSI’s new CEO Ronan Murphy are both timely and welcome as the Budget looms next week.

Top racehorse trainer Jim Bolger, whose views and opinions deservedly carry weight in both sectors, the thoroughbred and the sport horse world, said the Government should put a figure of €20m into the industry he has previously described as “a national asset”. A former accountant, Mr Bolger said such an investment would see a return.

The job figures alone are impressive for an indigenous industry, yielding employment nationwide with some 14,000 full-time jobs and many more thousands of part-time jobs and ancillary spin-off employement.

The updated UCD Report is on the desk of Minister Michael Creed at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and we will be watching with bated breath to see how next week’s Budget unfolds.

We all know it won’t be an easy one, the country is not flush with cash and the priority will and should be measures to ease the national housing crisis.