Horse Sport Ireland chairman Pat Wall said there was a possibility that Pillar 2 funding from the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) could be drawn down as an education fund to help breeders create discussion groups along the lines of those already set up by commercial dairy, beef and sheep farmers.

Wall maintained that the funding could be used to pay for facilitators who would run discussion groups on a county or regional basis across the country. However, he warned that such funding was unlikely to materialise unless horse breeders took the initiative to start up discussion groups themselves.