Isabel Hurley

A BUDGET increase of €50,000 for Horse Sport Ireland is just the tip of the iceberg of unprecedented mulit-millions in funding for Ireland’s vibrant sport horse industry.

That’s according to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, who said Ireland’s €700 million sport horse industry was “a big industry with 14,000 full-time jobs that is not to be sneezed at.”

Minister Coveney detailed that this week’s Budget was adding an extra 3% to last year’s funding of €1.87 million and also gave details of extra industry funding under the Animal Welfare Control of Horses Act and welfare organisations, which he said applied more to the sport horse industry than to the €1 billion thoroughbred industry.

Speaking on Tuesday, Minister Coveney told The Irish Field: “There is an increase of €50,000 in the Budget, I obviously need to talk to Horse Sport Ireland as to how we spend that because don’t forget last year it was a very significant increase (€600,000 extra) so maintaining that and increasing that is essentially maintaining a commitment.

“I was obviously involved in putting together Reaching New Heights and I’m going to chair the implementation group for that while I’m in office, the first one is coming up and I think it was important that I showed some good faith in terms of budget for next year.

“The fact that we are maintaining and building on last year’s extra funding for the sport horse industry is a good news story in itself,” claimed Minister Coveney.

Pointing out that the Department of Tourism and Sport is also responsible for funding the sport horse industry, Minister Coveney said: “There are other Departments that need to fund the Sport Horse sector as well as in Agriculture, we can’t do everything. Unlike in racing where I have full responsibility for the industry, in the sport horse sector, I only have half the responsibility in terms of breeding programmes and welfare and obviously supporting the sport as the Department of Tourism and Sport has a responsibility too but they are committed as well.

“Don’t forget we put a lot of money into the Jumping in the City series and we have a big horse welfare programme as well which affects the horse sport sector more than it affects the racing sector and we are increasing the money quite significantly on welfare.

“The Animal Welfare Control of Horses Act is €2.6 million plus another €200,000 around capital supports for projects around the country and then other animal welfare funds are increasing from €2.1 million in to €2.7m so that’s a 29% increase, it is an extra €600,000 and that is going to welfare organisations and again, the horse welfare groups will feature in that,” said the Minister.

He added: “Remember, the sport horse sector is a lot more about than simply the money that will go into marketing in H.S.I. and Jumping in the City which we are looking to develop next year. Of course it will be on the welfare and breeding side as well.

“There is also going to be a very signficiant expenditure under the knowledge transfer groups for horses - the Equine Discussion Groups under the Rural Development Programme - so that will be quite significant for next year.

“Horses are getting a lot more from this Department than they have ever got - from a welfare point of view; from a discussion group point of view; from a direct support for Horse Sport Ireland point of view and that’s as it should be because it is a big industry. It’s worth €700m to the economy and about 14,000 jobs so it is not to be sneezed at at all,” concluded Minister Coveney.