I move: That Dáil Éireann approves the following Regulations in draft: Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2025, copies of which were laid in draft form before Dáil Éireann on the 16th October, 2025. I am delighted to have the opportunity to address an important topic, namely, the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2025. I will be sharing my time with my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae. The horse and greyhound industries are an important part of Ireland’s economy and cultural heritage. Both sectors help promote balanced economic growth across Ireland, as they provide significant economic and social benefit to rural communities. Their importance has been acknowledged by successive Governments, and they are supported through legislation and policy initiatives. Exchequer funding provided for the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund plays a crucial role in both underpinning these sectors and supporting their continued development. This Government funding, in addition to supporting these key industries, also presents an excellent opportunity for a strong return on investment. The horse and greyhound racing industries receive financial support from the State through the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund, under section 12 of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act 2001. Payments are made from the fund to Horse Racing Ireland, HRI, and to Rásaíocht Con Éireann, RCÉ. Since 2001, a total of €1.8 billion has been paid from the fund to the horse and greyhound racing industries in accordance with the provisions of the Act. The cumulative upper limit on payments from the fund, provided for under the relevant regulations, has been reached. To give effect to the provisions of budget 2026, this cumulative upper limit must be increased by regulation. The Estimates for my Department, passed by both Houses as part of budget 2026, include an allocation of €99.1 million for the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund. This will be distributed in accordance with section 12(6) of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act 2001, with 80%, or €79.3 million, going to HRI, and 20%, equating to €19.8 million, going to RCÉ. To allow my Department to provide the moneys allocated in budget 2026, it is necessary to comply with the technical requirement, under section 12(13) of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act, to increase the cumulative limit on the amount payable from the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund by €99.1 million, to some €1.9 billion. This is achieved by way of the regulations submitted to the House today. I will now focus a little on each industry, starting with the horse racing sector. The horse racing industry is a cornerstone of Ireland's rural economy. According to the 2023 Deloitte report on the social and economic impact of Irish thoroughbred breeding and racing, it is estimated that the Irish thoroughbred industry has an annual economic impact of €2.46 billion. This represents a 34% increase from 2016. The sector also supports approximately 30,000 direct and indirect jobs, the majority of which are based in rural Ireland. It has an extraordinary reputation for breeding and racing. Government funding has been a key driver in retaining this status over many years, with the Irish racing and breeding industry shown to attract in excess of €550 million in foreign direct investment each year. Irish-trained horses continue to perform exceptionally at international events, including in the UK, France and the US, and highlight Ireland's world-class breeding, training and racing talent. This success cannot be taken for granted. The welfare of people and animals remains a key priority, as outlined in HRI's current strategic plan. HRI is committed to maintaining the highest standards of care and welfare, both on and away from the racetrack. This includes providing supports for organisations, including the Irish Horse Racing Regulatory Board, IHRB, to ensure the health and welfare of all horses. My Department will continue to back both HRI and the IHRB in these efforts. Turning to the greyhound racing sector, the 2021 Power report highlighted that the industry provides and supports considerable employment across the Irish economy. In 2019, it was estimated to have supported over 4,000 direct and indirect jobs. The sector's foundation is built on over 6,000 active and enthusiastic greyhound owners. As a long-standing tradition, the greyhound racing industry supports significant economic activity nationwide. Funding for this sector is especially important for rural Ireland. The industry’s future relies on a strong governance platform and the upholding of the highest standards of integrity and welfare, supported by a robust regulatory system. Government support is directly contingent on RCÉ annually guaranteeing that these welfare standards are strictly upheld, aligning with the programme for Government's commitment to improved animal welfare and traceability. RCÉ remains fully committed to upholding the highest standards of greyhound racing welfare and integrity. It continues to operate an ever-expanding care and welfare programme, utilising income from the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund towards the implementation of the highest possible welfare standards at kennels and racing facilities throughout the country and to rehoming activities. The ongoing welfare and integrity initiatives operated by the industry are pivotal. The work of RCÉ underscores this commitment, having conducted almost 2,500 inspections in the past year, the second highest annual figure on record. The industry maintains a zero tolerance approach to any breaches, demonstrating its commitment to the highest standards. RCÉ is fully committed to developing, managing and promoting a successful and commercially sustainable greyhound racing industry which meets the highest possible international regulatory and welfare standards. It will continue to be proactively governed by my Department. The programme for Government is committed to supporting rural communities and these industries continue to contribute to rural economic activity and employment. The two industries are key to balancing regional economic growth and both continue to provide a range of benefits for many rural locations. These benefits must not be overlooked. The Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund has played a key role in providing this investment and it has been instrumental in the shaping of these industries and the many livelihoods they support. I want to mention one further matter. Following a request from the Committee of Public Accounts, my Department commissioned an external review of the governance of the fund and its recipient bodies in the context of the current legislative and policy framework. This review has now been completed and a copy of the final report was sent to the public accounts committee last week. One of the report's key recommendations is to increase, over the medium term, the share of the fund ring-fenced for welfare purposes. I assure the House that my Department will work with the bodies to implement this and other recommendations contained in the report in the coming months. Accordingly, I am seeking the House's support to ensure that Horse Racing Ireland and Rásaíocht Con Éireann receive the funding provided for in budget 2026 and that the important role played by these industries, and the economic activity generated by them, are sustained into the future. I commend this regulation to the House and I look forward to listening to the views expressed and being able to respond to them later on.
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That is a shocking statement.
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In the brief time I have left, I will try to make a summation of all the points that have been made and answer each one of them. I thank colleagues for their comments. I regret some of the polarisation of the language in some of the contributions, which I thought was unnecessary. This is something people from both sides of the House have strong views on. We should all respect one another's views without getting to the level of name-calling, which was very regrettable. I will start by addressing the amendment from Labour and express my disappointment with its content and premise. I wish to express my surprise that the signatories to it include Alan Kelly from Tipperary, George Lawlor from Wexford and Mark Wall from Kildare. Those are three counties that have a massive economic benefit from the thousands of jobs that are generated in the horse racing and greyhound racing industries. They put their names to a motion that talks about this as a sport. Deputy Smith is missing the point. This is an industry. I am the Minister for agriculture and I am taking this. There is a reason I have responsibility for horse racing and greyhound racing. It is because it is an industry. It is an economic activity. Some 80% of horses that are bred are bred by farmers who have four mares or less. This is economic activity that provides thousands of jobs in those three counties I mentioned and all over rural Ireland. That is the point. People talk about it as a sport and compare it to sports that get capital grants and other measures. This is an industry and that economic activity is why the Government supports this sector. It is the right thing to do from an economic perspective as well as it being a key part of social and rural pursuits. Deputies Kenny and Newsome Drennan talked about the greyhound sector, their love for it and their experience of it in the past. To address Deputies Kenny and Whitmore regarding some of the statistics they talked about as regards care homes on the greyhound side, those figures do not take into account the greyhounds that were accommodated at one of the greyhound care centres that ended up being selected for rehoming. They numbered among the 587 greyhounds that were rehomed through the international rehoming partners of the Irish Retired Greyhound Trust. That is an important point to make. Deputy Whitmore talked about a waste of money. In 2025, RCÉ allocated €5.6 million to regulatory care and welfare expenditure. Under the RCÉ's traceability system, RCÉTS, figures at the end of quarter 3 in 2025 indicate that 59,708 greyhounds were subject to traceability, which is a key point. Deputies Whitmore, Coppinger and others made the point around these activities not having public support. Horse racing's total reported attendances, supplied by each race course to Horse Racing Ireland for 2024, amounted to 1.242 million people attending races in 2024, which was up from 1.236 million in 2023. The first six months of 2025 have shown a healthy rise in reported racecourse attendances. Total attendances for that period were 566,377 people, up 6.9% on the same period in 2024. So, it is incumbent on all of us in this House when we throw away comments like "this does not have public support"-----
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We are all entitled to our own views but let us not try to knock a very large amount of people in this country who are passionate about this activity and do care about it-----
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On the greyhound racing side in 2024, 358,141 people attended just short of 1,500 race meetings at 14 stadia. The economic activity point has been made by a number of Deputies regarding the attendances at those stadia, the spin-off industry that happens in the bars and restaurants outside the racing activity, the best dressed ladies, the boutiques, the hairdressers, the men's clothes shops and all that activity. A number of years ago, the Punchestown racing festival was calculated to be worth over €60 million to the local economy. That was before the pandemic, so I can imagine it is a multiple of that now. I do not have the latest figures to hand, but that figure is from my local festival off memory. I can imagine what Galway is worth. I know what Listowel is worth to Kerry and beyond, as Deputy Healy-Rae and others have outlined. A point was made about race money. The spread of prize money for racing is something that is not fully understood. The HRI factbook 2024 showed that out of 390 fixtures, there were 8,022 individual runners and 27% of those horses won at least one race. Some 5,800 of the individual runners won prize money at some stage, which equates to around 73% of individual runners or 71% compared to 2023. Of around 2,900 individual races, over 2,400 had prize money of under €25,000, with 129 having prize money greater than €100,000. Some people stood up here and made reference to a class divide. I did not do that. The inference is that there is one. There are suggestions from Members of the House that this is an elitist activity, something I countenance greatly. Deputy Gogarty, along with a number of others, spoke about there being no activity on the welfare piece. As a result of the "Prime Time Investigates" programme, we established the Professor Paddy Wall report in the Department. The publication of his report was combined with a 38-point action plan and a proposal, published in consultation with Professor Wall's report earlier this year. There were five key headings, which I will not go into because my time is up. The implementation of the Wall report is at an advanced stage. Reference was made to the census and many different areas. There are key actions in this space. I do not have enough time to address every point directly but I will conclude by thanking people for their contributions. As I said in my opening address, sections 12 and 13 of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act 2001 provides that a draft of the regulations be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and a resolution approving the draft be passed by each House. I again ask for the support of the House to ensure that Horse Racing Ireland and Rásaíocht Con Éireann receive the funding provided for in budget 2026. I commend the regulation to the House.
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