A meeting of the Kildare Hunt Club (KHC) failed last night to reach agreement on a proposal to sell some property to raise funds to clear a debt.
The club owns the Punchestown racecourse, and the proposal was to sell approximately 40 acres of the 466-acre Punchestown site to pay off debts to the billionaire Getty family and to Horse Racing Ireland (HRI).
Having to failed to reach agreement, talks between the KHC and HRI are expected to resume soon to find a new agreement on how best to settle the debts.
Matt Dempsey, chairman of KHC said: "The nub of this whole dispute is that the Kildare Hunt Club wants to be in a position to exercise its ownership rights, and to sort out the financial problems of the Punchestown companies, including the discharge of outstanding loans to the Getty company, called GT Equinus, and to settle with the Revenue.
"We also want to be able to ensure the long-term future of racing and hunting at Punchestown," he said.
GT Equinus, which is owned by the Getty family, is suing KHC for €4.2 million, equivalent to the principal and interest due on a €3.8 million loan extended to Punchestown in 1998.
The KHC has owned Punchestown for more than 100 years, and the racecourse is held in a trust.