IT’s high time the playing pitch for equine breeders and producers was levelled as, euro for euro, the Irish Sport Horse industry has never been given fair dues by successive governments.

Contributing over €815 million to the Irish economy, the return from the public coffers – factoring in the collective tax take from our industry – has been pretty paltry over the last decade. It’s only right and fair to say that public funding has of course increased for our industry during that time to approximately €7 million p.a. give or take from all sources.