THE ball will be set rolling on the review of Horse Sport Ireland in the coming months and will be carried out in the same way as the review undertaken into the racing industry.

That’s according to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD (FG) who told The Irish Field that the review of HSI will be part of the work of the implementation group, which he is chairing himself. The implementation group - born out of the Reaching New Heights report launched this spring - is due to hold its first meeting on Tuesday, October 20th.

“The review of Horse Sport Ireland will be part of the implementation group and we will get that up and running in the next few months. We will do what we did with the racing industry where we asked Indecon to look at the racing industry and make recommendations; we’ll do the same with the sport horse sector. That’s the way it should be, every sector has to be opened to being reviewed, people should not feel threatened by it, it’s not a criticism, it is just good governance and that’s the way they should see it.

“We have looked at the operations of BIM in the seafood sector; we have looked at the operations of Bord na gCon in the greyhound sector; we have looked at the operations of the racing industry and now we are going to look at the sport horse industry.

“We will have to get agreement on that from the Department of Tourism and Sport as well just to make sure everyone is comfortable with that as we (both departments) share responsibility for the sport horse sector,” said Minister Coveney.

ARMY EQUITATION SCHOOL

Referring to the Army Equitation School, Minister Coveney, who is also the Minister for Defence, said: “We are investing quite a lot of money this year in the Army Equitation School. We are putting in a new Olympic standard surface in the outdoor arena that is there, that has not been in use for the last couple of years because of problems with the surface there.

“I want the Equitation School to be best in class and we’ll invest appropriatly to ensure that happens and the proof is there we have sanctioned about €400,000 this year in terms of capital expenditure,” he added.

A €6 million hike announced for the Horse Racing and Greyhound Fund was part of a €1.5 billion total Budget package, the final budget of the 31st Dail announced on Tuesday by the Minister of Finance, Michael Noonan. It brings that Fund to €74 million.

Among Minister Noonan’s raft of measures was sweeping changes to road transport costs for commercial vehicle owners and operators which are now being pulled more into line with the UK and Europe (See A51).

Meanwhile the Rural Development Programme - under which the Equine Discussion Groups will be funded - received an additional €55 million, bringing the RDP up to €500 million next year.