Horse Racing Ireland warns of ‘devastation for industry of a hard Brexit’
BREXIT is set to have a ‘devastating impact’ on Ireland’s €1billion horse racing industry, jeopardising many of the 29,000 jobs it sustains here.
On the eve of this week’s Cheltenham Festival, horse breeders are alarmed over increasingly acrimonious wrangling about the future of racing after Brexit.
They warn that the prospect of horses having to go through border checks to various international festivals has the potential to cost the sector millions.
As it stands, Britain, Ireland and France have an agreement which allows horses registered
‘10,000 horses move between here and UK’
in any of the countries move freely between them, with only a vet’s certificate.
The three countries account for 90% of all horse movement in the EU, but UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove is embroiled in a stand-off with Brussels over plans to axe the arrangement if Britain leaves the Customs Union.
Mr Gove argues that the deal, struck in the 1960s, should be kept. But Brussels insists that as horse ‘free movement’ was incorporated into EU law, the arrangement would fall.
Chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland Brian Kavanagh has warned that the effect could be chaos, with the horses unable to move without health checks and even export licences. The racing authorities are lobbying the EU to treat it as an animal welfare issue, rather than a trade matter. This would exempt it from the negotiations.
Mr Kavanagh said: ‘It would be a disaster if the best horses couldn’t even make it to the first hurdle.’
Thoroughbred racing and breeding is big business on both sides of the Irish Sea. According to a Deloitte Ireland report it was worth more than €1bn last year. Mr Kavanagh said: ‘Brexit could have a devastating impact on the Irish thoroughbred racing and breeding industry, and the almost 29,000 direct and indirect jobs it supports in Ireland, many of them rural.
‘Nobody in the racing industries in Ireland, Britain or France wants to face the logistical challenge of moving horses through border controls and checkpoints, and we are working closely with our colleagues in Britain and France, and our own Departments of Agriculture, on this.
‘Last year, almost 200 Irishtrained horses travelled to take part in the Cheltenham festival, and for many Irish horses it is the big race meetings in Britain – Cheltenham, or Aintree, or Royal Ascot or Newmarket for example – that will be the shop window, the proving ground for the Irish racing industry.
‘Any Brexit-induced delays that increase time stuck in horse boxes in queues at ports, could prove extremely difficult for trainers and their staff to manage, and still permit the horse to perform to its maximum potential on the track.’
Every year, 10,000 horses move freely between the UK and Ireland.
Mairéad McGuinness MEP said last night: ‘Horse racing depends on the best horses moving freely across Ireland, the UK and France. A hard Brexit would put it at risk.’