Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) has been called on to “step up to the mark” to support the point-to-point racing industry.
Fianna Fáil TD Jackie Cahill, the chairperson of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, urged HRI to facilitate racing for horses that would have been taking part in the point-to-point season were it not for Covid-19.
Point-to-point racing has been suspended since January due to the pandemic and the public health restrictions. Cahill raised this issue briefly in a committee meeting yesterday evening (Tuesday, March 23), and he reiterated his concerns today.
“There are ordinary people up and down the country who are under serious financial pressures as a result of the continued suspension of the point-to-point season,” the Tipperary deputy highlighted.
He added: “There is a long chain of individuals who are interconnected and financially dependent on these races and the associated sales going ahead, as they would in other years.”
Cahill noted that point-to-point races are “the shop front for the sale of these horses, and if they are not permitted to get out on tracks and race, then sales will see a serious and detrimental decline.
This is very serious for what is a multi-million euro industry that has ordinary people the length and breadth of rural Ireland depending on it for a livelihood.
He also noted that HRI racecourses have health and safety protocols in place which allows event to be held there.
“Last week we saw first-hand, when the Irish had such great success at Cheltenham, just how important this industry is in Ireland. It employs vast numbers of people all across the country… Ireland is to the forefront internationally when it comes to National Hunt breeding and a successful point-to-point season is an absolutely essential component,” the TD argued.