The IFA has said that the vast majority of horse breeders in Ireland are involved in farming alongside their equine enterprise and that they plan to seek financial supports for the horse sector through the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS).

In a recent meeting of the IFA Horse Project Team (HPT), it was agreed that the main priority areas that the IFA HPT will focus on is the 5,000 farm families involved in horse breeding.

The 2021 IFA HPT consists of representatives of both the thoroughbred and sport horse sectors.

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Richard Kennedy, chair of the IFA HPT, said: "IFA seeks to represent all sectors of the farming community. The HPT will work within IFA to influence policymakers to address issues of concern to thoroughbred and sport horse breeders."

The IFA stated that a 2017 Deloitte economic report commissioned by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) showed that 92% of registered thoroughbred breeders in Ireland have five broodmares or less.

The profile is similar in sport horses; a 2017 UCD report into the sector's economic contribution showed that the mean number of sport horse broodmares per breeder is 2.6.

Grant scheme

"Other sectors currently have access to a 40% grant scheme to assist with infrastructural development on farms, and we want to see the horse sector included in future tranches of TAMS. This is the main priority for the IFA HPR," Kennedy said.

Other areas

The IFA HPT will focus on other areas in the coming months, engaging with authorities on Brexit implications for the sector, including transporting horses and maintaining and safeguarding the high welfare status of the Irish horse sector.

Through the IFA membership of the EU COPA Horse Working Party currently chaired by HPT member James Murphy and its office in Brussels, the IFA will raise horse policy issues at the highest levels in the EU.