Madam, - In the course of Kevin Myers's vitriolic assault on the works of Charles Haughey (An Irishman's Diary August 6th), Mr Haughey's tax-exempting legislation concerning the bloodstock industry is singled out as being the most scandalous.
This is a popular myth that has filled many a blank space for journalists over the years. I feel it is about time that the true position was given some coverage.
This legislation, which exempts from income tax the earnings from stallion fees - and not any other part of this major industry as is so often wrongly assumed - has formed the foundation of the success of the Irish thoroughbred industry in recent times.
Before its introduction there was hardly an industry worth talking about here as almost all successful racehorses were retired abroad. Now the best stallions in the world are based in Ireland and all business generated, apart from the stallion fees, is fully taxable.
As a direct result of this enlightened legislation, we can be proud that the best stud farm in the world is based in Tipperary, while the unprecedented success of Irish-trained horses internationally is another offshoot of Mr Haughey's tax law.
I myself make my living from the bloodstock industry. I rear young stock, break them in and pre-train them. I employ three full-time workers as well as some part-timers and I have been paying tax on my business for the past 25 years. My clientele consists mainly of foreigners, who base their bloodstock in this country mainly because of the supply of world-class stallions. So I, like countless other in this business, have benefited indirectly from Mr Haughey's legislation even though I have never owned a stallion.
Perhaps Kevin Myers was taking a lead from Pat Rabbitte who, on the Pat Kenny radio show last autumn, declared that the bloodstock industry paid "not a penny in tax". That vote-seeking gem of misinformation came on air the morning after I had sent my income tax cheque to the Collector-General!
Surely it is not too much to ask prominent journalists and politicians to base any future commentary on this major Irish industry on fact rather than on some whimsical scrap of ill-informed begrudgery. - Yours, etc.,
RICHARD BRABAZON, The Curragh, Co Kildare.