asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether he is aware of the refusal to grant permission for the holding of Punchestown Race Meeting for the season 1943, though Punchestown is mainly a small owners' fixture that caters principally for horses bred by farmers and owned and run by people of the hunting farmer class, and that the race committee do not require any extra travelling facilities and are prepared to incur financial loss if necessary; and whether, so that every possible encouragement may be given to people engaged in the hunter-breeding industry during this difficult period, he can take any steps to ensure the holding of this meeting.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Punchestown Race Meeting.
I am aware of the refusal to grant permission for the holding of a race meeting at the Punchestown course in 1943. The Central Racing Advisory Committee, in conjunction with the appropriate racing authorities, is required by Government Order to prepare a programme of meetings at such courses as will involve minimum demands on transport facilities. In accordance with this requirement, it has been decided not to sanction meetings at a number of centres including Punchestown. With regard to the final part of the Deputy's question, the Government is concerned only with limiting the demands on transport in connection with racing. I feel sure that the Central Racing Advisory Committee and the appropriate racing authority will be prepared to facilitate the holding of the meeting at a more convenient venue.
Does the Minister not realise that this is a national meeting that caters specially for the hunter breeding industry, and for that reason very special consideration should be given to it?
That is not a matter for me. The only thing I am concerned with is where the meeting is held. The importance of the meeting may be as great as the Deputy suggests, but the question as to whether and where the meeting should be held is a matter for the Central Racing Advisory Committee, in conjunction with the appropriate racing authority.
Is the Minister not aware—ought he not be aware—that you could not transfer Punchestown? Is it not a classic meeting in itself? Only a certain class of horse runs at the Punchestown meeting. The horses that run there are confined to the hunter thoroughbred class. The Minister ought to be aware that the race meeting at Punchestown is unique in Europe. You could not substitute Punchestown.
I do not think we should argue the merits of that here now. Quite a number of sports fixtures have had to be curtailed in order to prevent an undue strain on the available transport facilities. Those responsible for the organisation of racing and other forms of sport must be required to ensure that their arrangements do not involve any undue call upon the very limited transport facilities available.
Will the Minister point out what undue facilities would be demanded in connection with Punchestown any more than were demanded at the Naas meeting held last Saturday?
I do not know if we could debate the subject now. It is quite obvious the holding of any race meeting at a venue such as Punchestown is going to involve the use of the available train services to an excessive extent for the transportation of horses and passengers. Quite a number of race meetings have had to be abandoned, although they were arranged at venues much more convenient than Punchestown from the point of view of transport facilities.
But they are not races of a national character like Punchestown.
So far as the nature of the race meeting is concerned, it does not enter into the question at all. In the case of a number of courses where no races were held last year, arrangements were made by the advisory committee to hold contests of the same type on other courses.
Did I understand the Minister to say that the Central Racing Advisory Committee had advised against the holding of Punchestown?
It is the Central Racing Advisory Committee that fixes the programme.
We want to arrive at the responsibility. Does the Minister say the Central Racing Advisory Committee advised him against holding the Punchestown meeting?
The Central Racing Advisory Committee fixes the programme, but in the Government Order which gives them that function there is placed on them the obligation to fix a programme which will involve the minimum use of the available transport services.
Will the Minister reconsider his refusal in connection with the Punchestown meeting?
If the Central Racing Advisory Committee proposed to me to hold a meeting at Punchestown, I would have to say that they were disregarding the terms of the Government Order, which requires them to fix a programme which will involve the least strain on the available transport services.