During the past week, in a bid to get some pre-election clarity from our main parties on the subject of funding for the sport horse industry, I sent requests for information to some of our leading politicians and waited for answers.

Finally I got two pings on my phone. The first was a message from Fianna Fáil’s deputy leader Dara Calleary, who is a TD for Mayo. The second came from Fine Gael’s Wexford TD, Michael D’Arcy, who has been Minister for State at the Department of Finance since 2017.

Dara Calleary had this to say: “Fianna Fáil fully supports the continuation of state supports for the development of the sport horse industry. In advance of Budget 2020, Fianna Fáil’s Oireachtas members met and engaged with representatives of Horse Sport Ireland regarding progressing state financial supports to this important sector in the rural economy. We succeeded in securing €1m in funding in 2020 for the sport horse industry, which will enable the sector to progress in its development. We will continue to support this indigenous sector.”

Fine Gael’s Michael D’Arcy wrote: “Fine Gael is committed to the Irish sport horse industry, with increased allocation in the last budget.

“There is a strategic vision in place for the industry and we wish to see it augmented. The Irish sport horse industry is a vital part of our economy”.

Manifestos

Happily I next found out that for the first time in our state’s political history these sentiments have been included in a main party manifesto, with Fine Gael’s document stating:“We have doubled the level of funding for the horse sport sector and will continue to support the implementation of recommendations in the Reaching New Heights report, which underpins the sector.”

Sadly Dara Calleary’s positive words did not make it into the published Fianna Fáil manifesto. But a supplementary statement from a party spokesperson reads: Fianna Fáil is committed to fully funding the sport horse industry’s government in its development.”

Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) CEO Ronan Murphy welcomed the degree of attention that the Irish sport horse sector is receiving during the election run-up.

However, Murphy also cautioned that: “What we really need going forward is a framework of sustainable multi–annual funding that will help our sector grow.

“We also need a political champion that truly understands our industry.”