With a combination of trepidation and hope I read through the programme for government published last week by the proposed coalition parties.

Trepidation – because of those three political bodies only Fine Gael had included mention of the horse in its 2020 election manifesto. Hope – because over the past two years a truly professional lobbying campaign had been undertaken for increased funding to the equestrian sector.

As I read the 137-page document my concerns grew, for by the time I had reached page 80 there was still no sign of anything equine related.

But then bingo, on pages 81 and 82 I found the following: “We will continue to support the horse sport sector, recognising the need for increased ambition in this area to exploit the enormous potential of the sector from the perspective of competitive sport, welfare, traceability, and breeding standards. The further implementation of Reaching New Heights, which underpins the horse sport industry, is critical to that endeavour. We will ensure there is greater coordination between Government departments on the delivery of this strategy.”

No wonder HSI’s CEO Ronan Murphy reacted with delight at the news of a potential new Government featuring Fine Gael, saying: “We strongly welcome this important commitment in the programme for government towards the Irish sport horse industry which recognises both the importance of the sector and its enormous potential. We look forward to building on the relationships that we formed with all relevant departments and working with the incoming Government to further develop the full potential of the Irish sport horse sector.”

Commitments

There are a number of further commitments in the document which have bearing on the equestrian sector. For example it promises strong support for Irish teams and athletes who “perform well” in the international arenas and commits to publishing a high performance strategy that “will set ambitious medal targets over three Olympic/Paralympic cycles”. There is no better sport to benefit from such a strategy than equestrian.

Strong mention is also given to rural based job creation. The 14,000 jobs already in the equine sector are almost 100% rural based.

A fair mention is also given to the development of additional urban horse welfare programmes and that is a joy to see.

We will not know until Friday (26 June) if we have a Government but whatever happens it would be hard for any future administration to renege on the promises made in this document.