GOVERNMENT AND Opposition TDs agreed to exchequer funding of €68.128 million for the horse and greyhound racing industries this year, while a review of funding is completed.

Minister for Sport Martin Cullen said the two industries accounted for some 27,500 jobs directly and the funding “underpins economic activity in regions of the country that are often less affluent”.

Describing Ireland’s horseracing sector as “the most successful racing industry in the world”, he said it was important that the Dáil sent out a “clear, unequivocal message” to those who had an “agenda to undermine the industry”. But he warned that “the industry as a whole must contribute”.

During an hour-long debate Mr Cullen said that “some people are making considerable profits from the industry but they are killing many aspects of it. They make no contribution but are reaping the rewards of the most successful racing industry in the world.”

The off-course betting tax will increase from 1 per cent to 2 per cent from May 1st this year. The Minister will present his review of the fund to Cabinet “in due course”.

Fine Gael spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell said Ireland could not afford to “ignore an industry in which we are a world leader”.

Ireland is the third-biggest exporter of horses in the world, with one in eight farmers involved in breeding. She said, however: “The trouble is that every job, from the farm in Kilkenny to the racecourse at Leopardstown, is sustained by the size of the purse on the racecourse.”

Ms Mitchell said it was “folly” to reduce the levy on betting in recent years. Off-shore internet betting was gaining at the expense of the ordinary bookmaker but those bookmakers “are still taking in some €3.5 billion in turnover” and it was “only right that they should make a contribution to the industry that gives them a lucrative reason for being”.

Labour spokeswoman Mary Upton said both industries were significant to the economy but were “in need of reform” and in the recession “current levels of prize money are not sustainable”. She said that much of the prizemoney ended up in the hands of relatively few people “some of whom reside outside the country and are not caught up in any way in our tax net”.

She said that “in a recent analysis of the industry commentators failed to explain why a State subvention is needed to support the fund.

“The reason is that the largest bookmaking operators have migrated their industries offshore for tax purposes.”

Martin Ferris (SF, Kerry North) said that nobody could deny the value of the horse and greyhound sector to Ireland but he noted the massive cuts other sports were subjected to.

“It is ironic that a Government whose members are falling over themselves to be seen with boxers who won Olympic medals are not doing their level best to ensure that clubs like St Xavier’s and others will have the facilities to cater for all the young people inspired by Darren Sutherland and Kenny Egan.”