The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, came out strongly in favour of fox-hunting yesterday when he officially opened the Kerrygold Horse show in the RDS. The Minister said a ban on fox-hunting in Britain would severely affect Ireland's £100 million sports horse industry and place in jeopardy the livelihood of the 10,000 people involved in it. He said banning the sport in Britain would directly affect the Irish horse industry as many of the horses used in hunts in Britain were purchased here.
The Minister said that as far as he was concerned, fox-hunting was not a cruel sport and he supported what he called "rural pursuits". He has problems, however, with hunts digging out and killing a fox which has escaped to earth. "I think that is unacceptable and I do not like it, but I cannot say that I believe fox-hunting is cruel," he said.
He said Ireland had found an acceptable solution to coursing by muzzling the dogs and taking the kill out of it.
Mr Walsh announced that 10 new marketing centres are to be established with Department aid to help the industry to market horses to buyers from abroad. These will be spread throughout the country to facilitate breeders who could have their horses schooled there and presented in the best possible way to overseas buyers.
He would like to see Ballinasloe and other fairs continuing, however, because they attracted a lot of personality attention from abroad and because of their cultural value.
Mr Walsh said there had been 40 applications for funds to establish the marketing/schooling centres. The Horse Board, he said, already has a programme which gives financial assistance, like air fares, to buyers coming to Ireland to purchase horses.
He said the package available from the State to the industry involved £10 million in structural funds. In addition to the marketing programmes, there were incentive schemes, blood typing, stallion performance testing and artificial insemination programmes.
Mr Walsh said that this, the 124th year of the show, would see the cream of the world's showjumping riders and horses from 11 nations. The continued success of Irish-bred eventers at major competitions around the world emphasised the great versatility and wonderful temperament of the Irish horse.
In May, he said, Irish horses were dominant at the Badminton three-day event, where the top three horses were Irish - Custom Made, Star Appeal and Cosmopolitan, all ridden by overseas riders.