CO Clare horseman Sean Kilkenny and his horses reached Dáil Éireann in Dublin City centre on Friday morning after a five-day trek from Dromoland Castle to highlight the crippling effect of the insurance industry on small businesses.

Kilkenny, who runs the riding school attached to Dromoland Castle for the last 12 years as well as a carriage business and horse-drawn wedding and funeral service, drove his horse-drawn carriage for the 141-mile journey via the old Dublin road.

His insurance has risen from €3,995 to €11,500 and has forced him to close the business he loves and put his horses up for sale. “I am closed for business. I have no insurance today and there is no way I could pay €11,500 to go back into the Irish market. It is breaking my heart, the horses are my life,” Kilkenny told The Irish Field on Friday as he made his way back to Co Clare.

“Our job is done, we got our clear message out to the country and I am going back to looking after my horses now. It was epic, we came an awful lonely road to get to Dublin, and the further up we got, the rockier it gone.

“We weren’t in Dublin protesting, we were delivering a message and bringing awareness to the way the world is. The trekking and jarvey business is all but gone except in a few places and I’m told the jarvey insurance is going to be pulled in October. We need urgent insurance reform in this country – it’s a corrupt system here.”

Kilkenny said he has received phenomenal support in highlighting the issue. “I have received 400 or 500 phonecalls. I hope it pays off, not for me, I don’t want nothing out of it, but I hope it pays off for the people of Ireland.

“I am the proudest man in Ireland to say I own a horse. If anyone is on the journey with us, they will see how hard the horses worked. They loved it, some of them never lay down. I slept with my horses in a field for the last four nights.”

Support

Kilkenny and his supporters were met outside the Dáil by Clare Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley. On Thursday, Dooley raised the issue in the Seanad under the Financial Provisions (Covid-19) Bill 2020 discussion.

“Today I met with a number of jarveys and people involved in horse trekking industry. They are on their knees. Normally the business they would get from the American market would have them very busy at this time of year,” Dooley said.

“Sean Kilkenny is a young man who has built a great business for visitors who come to Dromoland Castle. He provides pony trekking, horse trekking and carriage rides, principally for the American market. It is a wonderful tourist attraction and a great business, he employs locals.

“They were coming under significant pressure from insurance sector. Now I understand there is no insurance company prepared to insure that business. They are in real trouble from that perspective and, obviously, the lack of tourists puts them under immense pressure.

“We have to find a way, in the first instance, to address the insurance business and we have to provide support to those who find themselves in these places. The €350 Covid-19 payment isn’t much to support him and his family, and it certainly isn’t enough to feed 40 horses.

“We will get beyond Covid-19, but we can’t allow these little businesses to die on a ditch in the intervening period. Let’s look at this in a holistic way and let’s insure the money trickles down and gets the people who really need it,” Dooley said.

He echoed this sentiment outside the gates on the Dáil on Friday morning, saying all the TDs and Senators in Co Clare are committed to working with and for the industry.