Horse Racing Ireland Funding

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 November 2016

Tuesday, 8 November 2016

Questions (420)

Clare Daly

Question:

420. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will confirm that in addition to grant aid being provided by HRI to Irish racecourses in the financial year of 2014, Irish racecourses also received an additional total figure of €22,616,000 from the sale of media rights, divided among racecourses commensurate to the number of race meetings held by any particular racecourse; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33365/16]

Written answers

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) is a commercial state body established under the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act, 2001, and is responsible for the overall administration, promotion and development of the horse racing industry.

Under section 61(2) of the Irish Horseracing Industry Act 1994 the property rights in relation to any broadcast of any part of a race-fixture or any photography, film or sound recording taken or made for commercial purposes at a race-fixture shall vest in the executive of the authorised racecourse concerned.

HRI has informed me that while the total amounts received are a commercial matter for racecourses, in the Petrus Report, produced and published on behalf of the Association of Irish Racecourses in 2013, the media rights annual total was stated as €19.972m and it showed that 'without media rights income, racecourses would have experienced aggregate losses of over €13.7 million. This shows the very high level of dependency of racecourses on this revenue stream.