Thank you, Chairman, for the invitation to address the committee following my nomination by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to the chair of the National Stud.
On the global scene Ireland is the third largest producer of thoroughbreds in the world, after the US and Australia. Argentina is vying with us to some extent. The thoroughbred horse sector is a remarkable story. Over 40% of the EU output of thoroughbreds is produced in Ireland, and we have by any standards a remarkable record in producing many of the world's greatest winners on a consistent basis. We also have a remarkable record in attracting stallions to stand here. It is a sector that demonstrably has a global capacity to compete. Sectors with a global capacity to compete on a level playing field are few enough in the Irish economy. Why else would it be the case that we have one of the greatest horses, Sea the Stars, owned by a Hong Kong business family, who spent his formative years at the Irish National Stud, won many of the world's most prestigious races from an Irish training yard, and then retired to a stud in Ireland owned by the Aga Khan? It is a truly international sector with a high profile and image. Nobody disputes the broad importance and the international credibility of the sector.
The key discussion point of today's meeting is why there is a need for an Irish National Stud, our view of it and what its place is in a modern Ireland. The committee will then have to decide whether I am a fit person to hold such a prestigious position.
The mission statement is simply to promote the interests of the Irish bloodstock industry by providing the services of high quality stallions to as wide a range of breeders as possible but the act of setting up the stud or at least assuming ownership of it, as the State did in 1946, is much more comprehensive than might be supposed. It is worth noting that until 1943, the farm at Tully was in fact part of the British National Stud. Ireland in 1946 was not a rich country but even then the Government recognised that a thriving national thoroughbred stud was important and it made available £60,000 sterling for the purchase of its first stallion, Royal Charger, equivalent to almost €2 million in today's terms. In 1952 it made available £250,000, an enormous sum at the time, for the purchase of Tulyar.
The committee will be only too well aware of the inevitable choices that must be made in fulfilling a necessary mandate to be profitable and commercial while reconciling that with the desirability and duty to take a wider national imperative into account. The wider remit than pure commercialism is encapsulated in sections of the Act which give among its objectives to put into operation special schemes for the improvement of horse breeding and to locate high class stallions and if necessary to make them available at reduced prices and also to provide an advisory service for breeders in regard to the mating of their thoroughbred mares. Its permitted role under the Act is wide, including to raise or borrow money or to receive subsidies from the State and even to provide living accommodation for the company's directors, which is worthwhile as a precedent.
The stud also has a thriving tourism business from the County Kildare perspective as distinct from its international impact in trading the service of stallions. The Japanese Gardens, St. Fiachra's Garden and the Irish Horse Museum are nationally important tourism attractions, which are important for the generation of employment in Kildare. They also tend to be a destination in Kildare rather than being visited on the way to somewhere else. They have in excess of 115,000 visitors a year and have reached as many as 140,000. The intention is that we will continue to build on this.
The National Stud is important in terms of the quantity and quality of the foals it produces. In 2011 the National Stud's sires produced 800 flat foals, 20% of that year's flat foal crop. That might surprise members. This is an extraordinary figure and forces one to revise the view that the country has more than sufficient stallions and stallion farms to meet the needs. Standing a stallion is an expensive, risky business and the numbers of stallion farms has dropped significantly in recent years. While the Coolmore and Maktoum operations grab much of the headlines I firmly believe that it is very much in the national interest that access to stallions of a range of qualities is available to breeders outside a very restricted grouping of specialist stallion studs. Even from the perception of the industry by the ordinary taxpaying public a range of participants is highly desirable.
Ireland has a number of real advantages in producing world-leading horses that are encapsulated in the record of the National Stud itself. It is no accident that recent world beaters spent their formative growing years growing here - Frankel among them. The key ingredients that have driven many to look seriously at the horse industry from all over the world are land, including the limestone base of soil - I can go into it in detail - climate, and labour in the broadest sense, including innate skill with horses.
With this set of national advantages, the National Stud was the first in the world to recognise the need for a formal educational structure in stud management. Since 1970 it has fulfilled a role that has become a template others have followed. This course has produced many of the current leaders of the industry worldwide and is something I would be keen to see built on. In this year of The Gathering, approximately 1,000 graduates from the National Stud course have been invited to come to lunch at the stud during the Derby weekend, which should become a focal point for them and us.
With the growing perception of the quality of the Irish thoroughbred horse, my view is that the stud could usefully carefully extend its brief to one specifically allowed for in the Act, that is, to provide specific thoroughbred breeding advice. Obviously, that would be of most use to farmer families on suitable land who might see diversification into selective thoroughbred breeding as a worthwhile additional enterprise. As it is, the stud provides opportunities in partnership with other farms for National Stud stallions to stand around the country - there are two in Wexford and one in Laois.
In today's Ireland the National Stud must be a commercial success. It must stand on its own feet commercially and be in a position to have a range of stallions, with at least one representative at the very top of the quality pyramid. We are fortunate, following Lady Chryss O'Reilly's term, that we have a capable and skilled chief executive in place, a strong balance sheet, an excellent complement of stallions and a growing complement of mares. I intend to chair a board that will build on this favourable inheritance. The next key requirement is to source a top class stallion that will in time replace the outstandingly successful Invincible Spirit.
I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to set before the committee this unique institution that is the Irish National Stud, its associated tourist enterprises in the form of the Japanese Gardens and its sizeable commercial farms, and its importance as an employer of skilled staff in both the equine and tourism sectors.
