Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2024: Motion (Resumed)
The following motion was moved by the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Martin Heydon, on 22 October 2024.
That Dáil Éireann approves the following Regulations in draft:
Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2024,
copies of which were laid in draft form before Dáil Éireann on 3rd October, 2024.
Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"notes that:
- while it is acknowledged that the horse and greyhound racing sectors do not qualify for sports capital funding, they are unique in Irish sport in that they are supported by the State through their own ring-fenced statutory fund;
- that payments into the Fund have increased from €68 million in 2015, up to the €99.1 million proposed for 2025, a 46 per cent increase over the decade, with the proposed payment for 2025 an increase of a further €4 million over 2024;
- there is a question as to the continuing appropriateness of the indexation formula that is intended to provide a floor for Exchequer payments into the Fund, linked to receipts from excise duty on off-course betting;
- while up to 2009 the statutory indexation formula was followed, the Minister for Finance has confirmed that the formula was abandoned in 2009, without any enabling change in the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act, 2001, and that the approach since then has been for a unilateral decision by Government on the amount to be provided to the Fund in each year;
- a significant amount of the Fund is used for prizes, which seems to benefit those who are most successful, and no independent economic or social impact analysis has been carried out to determine the best use of this resource;
- although in the intervening years there have been reports of serious animal welfare concerns in both sectors, there is a lack of clear statutory conditionality that would make any State financial support conditional on rigorous animal welfare criteria being satisfied, nor are any conditions related to workers' rights in the sector attached to the funding;
believes therefore that the funding model under section 12 of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act, 2001 is in urgent need of review and replacement, and calls on the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to carry out such a full and independent review of the Fund, including in particular with recommendations on:
- how best to support these sectors, those involved in it, and rural communities;
- measures needed to ensure the highest standards of animal welfare are implemented and complied with;
- how the rights of workers in the sector can be improved and an employment regulation order introduced to set minimum rates of pay and conditions; and
- whether and how funding for these sectors and other sports should be aligned;
to be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas within six months, with a view to amending legislation being in placewell before the anticipated date of any further presentation of draft regulations under this section for the approval of the Houses, and
approves the following Regulations in draft:
Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2024,
copies of which were laid in draft form before Dáil Éireann on the 3rd October, 2024.".
- (Deputy Alan Kelly)
I must now deal with a postponed division relating to the motion regarding the proposed approval by Dáil Éireann of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2024. On Tuesday, 22 October 2024, on the question, "That the amendment to the motion be agreed to", a division was claimed and in accordance with Standing Order 80(2), that division must be taken now.
I understand that the Labour Party wishes to withdraw its amendment. Is that correct? The Labour Party has withdrawn its amendment.
Question put:
The Dáil divided: Tá, 110; Níl, 19; Staon, 0.
Tá
- Andrews, Chris.
- Brophy, Colm.
- Browne, James.
- Browne, Martin.
- Bruton, Richard.
- Buckley, Pat.
- Burke, Colm.
- Burke, Peter.
- Butler, Mary.
- Byrne, Thomas.
- Calleary, Dara.
- Canney, Seán.
- Cannon, Ciarán.
- Carroll MacNeill, Jennifer.
- Carthy, Matt.
- Clarke, Sorca.
- Collins, Michael.
- Collins, Niall.
- Conway-Walsh, Rose.
- Costello, Patrick.
- Coveney, Simon.
- Creed, Michael.
- Cronin, Réada.
- Crowe, Cathal.
- Crowe, Seán.
- Cullinane, David.
- Daly, Pa.
- Devlin, Cormac.
- Dillon, Alan.
- Doherty, Pearse.
- Donnelly, Paul.
- Donnelly, Stephen.
- Duffy, Francis Noel.
- Durkan, Bernard J.
- Ellis, Dessie.
- English, Damien.
- Farrell, Mairéad.
- Feighan, Frankie.
- Fitzmaurice, Michael.
- Flaherty, Joe.
- Fleming, Sean.
- Foley, Norma.
- Grealish, Noel.
- Griffin, Brendan.
- Guirke, Johnny.
- Haughey, Seán.
- Healy-Rae, Danny.
- Healy-Rae, Michael.
- Heydon, Martin.
- Higgins, Emer.
- Hourigan, Neasa.
- Humphreys, Heather.
- Kelly, Alan.
- Kerrane, Claire.
- Lahart, John.
- Lawless, James.
- Leddin, Brian.
- Lowry, Michael.
- Mac Lochlainn, Pádraig.
- MacSharry, Marc.
- Madigan, Josepha.
- Martin, Catherine.
- Matthews, Steven.
- McAuliffe, Paul.
- McConalogue, Charlie.
- McDonald, Mary Lou.
- McEntee, Helen.
- McGrath, Mattie.
- McHugh, Joe.
- Mitchell, Denise.
- Moynihan, Aindrias.
- Moynihan, Michael.
- Munster, Imelda.
- Murnane O'Connor, Jennifer.
- Mythen, Johnny.
- Naughton, Hildegarde.
- Nolan, Carol.
- Noonan, Malcolm.
- O'Brien, Darragh.
- O'Brien, Joe.
- O'Callaghan, Jim.
- O'Connor, James.
- O'Dea, Willie.
- O'Donnell, Kieran.
- O'Donoghue, Richard.
- O'Dowd, Fergus.
- O'Gorman, Roderic.
- O'Rourke, Darren.
- O'Sullivan, Christopher.
- O'Sullivan, Pádraig.
- Ó Broin, Eoin.
- Ó Cathasaigh, Marc.
- Ó Cuív, Éamon.
- Ó Laoghaire, Donnchadh.
- Ó Murchú, Ruairí.
- Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
- Quinlivan, Maurice.
- Rabbitte, Anne.
- Richmond, Neale.
- Ring, Michael.
- Sherlock, Sean.
- Smith, Brendan.
- Smyth, Niamh.
- Smyth, Ossian.
- Stanton, David.
- Tóibín, Peadar.
- Troy, Robert.
- Tully, Pauline.
- Varadkar, Leo.
- Ward, Mark.
Níl
- Bacik, Ivana.
- Barry, Mick.
- Boyd Barrett, Richard.
- Cairns, Holly.
- Collins, Joan.
- Connolly, Catherine.
- Gannon, Gary.
- Howlin, Brendan.
- Kenny, Gino.
- Murphy, Catherine.
- Murphy, Paul.
- O'Callaghan, Cian.
- Pringle, Thomas.
- Ryan, Patricia.
- Shortall, Róisín.
- Smith, Bríd.
- Smith, Duncan.
- Whitmore, Jennifer.
- Wynne, Violet-Anne.
Tellers: Tá, Deputies Hildegarde Naughton and Cormac Devlin; Níl, Deputies Paul Murphy and Mick Barry.
Question declared carried.
