THE Minister of State for Sport, Thomas Byrne, has asked Sport Ireland that an alternative location be identified within the Sport Ireland Campus for the National Horse Sport Arena which is due to be removed in the next 18 months.

As reported in The Irish Field last month, the National Horse Sport Arena, believed to have cost in the region of €300,000 to build 10 years ago, is to be repurposed as a vegetable garden as part of the ‘Sport Ireland Campus Masterplan’, a document which outlines a vision and framework for the Abbotstown campus over the next 15 to 20 years.

The main house, the adjacent courtyards and the walled garden will be re-imagined as flexible public spaces, creating a new destination space to host a range of events and activities for athletes and the wider community. This will require a change of use of this area, including the National Horse Sport Arena. No change of use is expected for at least another 18 months.

The published framework does not include equestrian anywhere in the future plan and Sport Ireland last month confirmed to The Irish Field that there are no plans to relocate the arena. When questioned, Minister Thomas Byrne, the Minister of State with responsibility for Sport and Physical Education, told this paper the query should be answered by Sport Ireland.

However, after further lobbying and a petition to stop its removal, Minister Byrne has pledged his support to retaining the facility somewhere on the Sport Ireland Campus. A letter from his department, seen by The Irish Field this week, outlined that the Minister raised the matter with the chairman of Sport Ireland, Mr John Foley, and asked that an alternative location be identified within the campus, so that the National Horse Sport Arena can be retained as an important facility for equestrian sport.

“It is Minister Byrne’s view that equestrian sport should continue to have a home on the Sport Ireland Campus and he has made this position clear to Sport Ireland,” the letter read.

Publicly-owned

The National Horse Sport Arena, opened in October 2013, is the first publicly owned facility of its kind in Ireland. It is managed by the Operations Company of the National Sports Campus and has always been available on a ‘community commercial’ basis for training purposes.

The sand area is 100m x 55m and is a sand-fibre mix. The natural grass area beside the arena is 121m x 32m. There are also 10 stables on site with space for horse boxes/lorries available. The arena alone is believed to have cost approximately €300,000 10 years ago, and the surface has since been topped up. Irish high-performance teams and athletes have used the arena for 10 years in preparation for championships.