Ms Suzanne Eade:

I thank the Chair and members of the committee. I am grateful to be given the opportunity to appear before the Committee of Public Accounts to assist with its examination of the 2022 financial statements of Horse Racing Ireland. I am the chief executive of HRI. Joining me today are Ms Claire Rudd, HRI’s head of risk and compliance, and Mr. John Osborne, HRI’s director of equine welfare and bloodstock.

HRI is a commercial semi-State body responsible to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, having been established under the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act 2001. HRI is responsible for the overall administration, governance, development, and promotion of the Irish horseracing industry and we proudly do so on an all-island basis. The industry generates €2.4 billion for the economy annually and supports over 30,000 jobs directly and indirectly, the majority of which are based in rural Ireland. This means that the Government’s annual investment in the industry provides a 35-fold return to the Irish economy.

Ireland is seen internationally as a global leader in horse racing and breeding, and thoroughbreds owned, bred and trained in Ireland compete at the highest level on the world stage. We saw an example of this earlier in the month when Irish-trained horses prevailed in two of the world’s greatest races, the Derby and the Oaks at Epsom. This came just weeks after incredible Irish success at Cheltenham and Aintree. Our champion trainer, Willie Mullins, became the first non-British-based trainer since Vincent O'Brien 70 years ago to be crowned Britain’s champion national hunt trainer, a measure of Ireland’s success on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Government policy and legislation over many decades has put structures in place which have not only protected this 32-county industry but have also allowed Ireland to compete at the highest levels in world racing, while enabling vital and sustainable rural-based employment throughout the country. HRI and the entire horse racing and breeding industry are very grateful to successive Governments and the Oireachtas for their continued support through the horse and greyhound fund.

Before I come to the financial statements, it is very important to address the "RTÉ Investigates" programmes which were broadcast last week. On behalf of HRI, its board, the chairman and all our staff, I would like to say how deeply disgusted and appalled we are at what we saw in the programmes. The behaviour depicted was abhorrent and is absolutely not the experience of those working directly in the horse racing and breeding industry. We welcome the swift response from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. We will fully support any Garda and Department of agriculture investigations, and we eagerly await their conclusion.

Equine safety and care is our top priority. Our budget accounts for €7 million annual expenditure on welfare for 2024. This is in addition to our welfare-related capital projects in recent years, such as CCTV provision on our 25 racecourses, traceability enhancements within our racing system, RÁS, together with grant aid for racecourses for welfare measures. In May, we announced a further €1 million funding in the next phase of a capital development scheme to further enhance equine safety at our racecourses. We also fund IHRB’s integrity services, which includes both raceday and out of competition veterinary inspections, and the IHRB’s best-practice anti-doping programme.

We work with organisations such as the Irish Horse Welfare Trust and Treo Eile which connect, support and promote thoroughbreds as they transition after their racing career. We provide education and training to industry participants, and held our first welfare symposium in May, which brought together stakeholders from across the sector to discuss the way ahead for equine safety and care. We consider the sharing of information, experiences and best practice across the entire industry to be key to achieving excellence in equine welfare.

The topic of traceability was also covered in the "RTÉ Investigates" programmes, and meaningful progress has been made in recent years. In 2021, Ireland was the first country in the EU to implement e-passports for thoroughbreds. These e-passports are a digital lifetime document which track the horse’s vaccines and medical records, ownership and movement. They contain five layers of identification, including the horse’s microchip number and, since 2001, DNA analysis. The first phase of a central traceability system for thoroughbreds has been built by Weatherbys, the organisation authorised to issue thoroughbred passports in Ireland and the UK. The next phase, which will go live next year, will connect different strands of data in one central database so that we can identify a horse’s whereabouts at key life cycle events. In addition, we are working with the equine liaison group, organised through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, on joined-up process mapping of all horse management, movement and control to enhance traceability and identify any potential data gaps. Whole-of-life traceability is an ongoing priority and we will continue to work with our colleagues in the Department and across the industry to enhance our systems and protocols.

In December 2023, we published HRI’s sustainability strategy, Racing towards a better world, which will continue to deliver on our responsibilities in respect of climate change concerns in line with the Government’s climate action plan. HRI is committed to fostering an industry-wide culture of sustainability. We also want to support the industry to increase its understanding and delivery of sustainability priorities through practical measures and financial supports, where possible. To achieve this, HRI will continuously share our learnings with industry stakeholders.

This April, we launched the strategic plan 2024-28 which outlines the ambition we have for the industry. This strategy provides the industry with a roadmap which will support people both working and investing into our industry. Beyond that, this strategy protects our horses, our environment and Ireland’s position as the epicentre of the thoroughbred industry well into the future. Our remit is to develop racing and breeding in Ireland, and our aim is to grow the contribution the industry makes to Irish communities from €2.4 billion currently to €3 billion by 2028. Driving long-term financial sustainability for the industry will stimulate expenditure and grow job opportunities, particularly in rural Ireland, and achieving this €3 billion figure is very much within reach by maximising all revenue streams. To nurture success, we aim to deliver on major capital projects within the lifetime of the strategic plan, which includes a people campus – an education and training facility with programmes and expertise designed to upskill those aspiring to a career in the wider thoroughbred industry. The targets in our strategic plan foresee a growing industry, one which will seek not just to attract the best talent from Ireland, but also to develop the country as a global centre of excellence for industry education and training.

The development of a new all-weather track at Tipperary Racecourse will create domestic opportunities at all levels of the industry as well as providing the marketplace for Irish racing to grow its annual foreign direct investment, which is currently estimated to be more than €550 million per annum. With only one all-weather track currently, Irish racing lags behind its international competitors. Given that almost half of the 550 licensed trainers in Ireland are based within neighbouring counties to Tipperary, this facility when developed will provide much-needed regional balance.

Our industry statistics from 2023 point to a stable industry. The number of horses in training increased. This is a key figure when it comes to assessing rural employment in the industry. Attendances in 2023 were marginally down on 2022, with minor reductions also recorded in the number of entries, figures that might have been expected in light of the cost-of-living crisis prevailing throughout that year. That said, racing continues to deliver superb sporting occasions showcasing the best of our industry and sport.

Finally, I wish to share with the committee that we have worked collaboratively with the IHRB over the past 12 months on significant transformational change within the IHRB in the areas of HR, IT and financial governance. This will allow the IHRB to focus on its core functions as a regulator and will provide HRI and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine reassurance that the governance matters as highlighted by IHRB will be adequately resourced and addressed. We take governance maters relating to Exchequer funding very seriously and we are satisfied that adequate governance and compliance processes and systems have been developed and are being implemented. I thank the committee for the invitation to appear, and we look forward to taking questions on the accounts or any other maters concerning the racing and breeding industry.