Paul Murphy, People Before Profit TD for Dublin South-West, has called for the defunding of the horse and greyhound industries.
Budget 26 allocated €99.1, based in accordance with section 12(6) of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act 2001, with 80%, or €79.3 million, going to Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) and 20%, equating to €19.8 million, going to Rásaíocht Con Éireann, (RCÉ).
In response, Mr Murphy said, “Public money paid by the State tax-free into the pockets of the wealthy owners. €100 million to a gambling-fuelling, addiction-fuelling industry. Where does the money go? Does it fund the welfare of horses and greyhounds? Does it assure decent pay for workers in the sector?”
In addition he said, “the government wants to hand over about €20 million to greyhound racing and about €80 million to the horse racing industry. To put that in context, that is close to the total funding for Sport Ireland.
“It is more than three times the amount of core funding given to the 87 different sports bodies in this country, adding together the GAA, the FAI, Swim Ireland, Athletics Ireland and Special Olympics Ireland.
“The vast majority of this money goes to prize money, public money paid by the State tax-free into the pockets of the wealthy owners. The Department of agriculture itself allows that €75 million of this money, over three quarters, can go into prize money. We do not have to look very far to find some of these owners, in particular greyhound owners.”
Banning Greyhound Racing
Highlighting public opinion about greyhound racing he said, “Internationally, people are moving to ban greyhound racing – Wales, Scotland, and New Zealand. Instead, we are funnelling more and more money into an industry that would not exist without it. Almost 3,000 of the 12,500 racing greyhounds born in 2021 were already dead or unaccounted for just three years later. How high is that number now?
“A report commissioned by the Minister has said that the welfare of racing greyhounds in Ireland is an ‘existential issue’ for the industry. Of course it is. With dogs dying on the tracks, freezers for dead dogs at every single racetrack across the country, and a quarter of Irish racing greyhounds dead before their third or fourth year, how could ordinary people possibly be happy with it?”
Mr Murphy intends to continue raising this funding issue in the Dáil and to work towards amending the legislation that commits the Irish taxpayer to funding two gambling activities that provide dubious entrainment while exploiting and killing horses and greyhounds.
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