Gino Kenny: Ban Would Drive Sulky Racing Underground

Thanks Chair and probably won't use all my 10 minutes and it's good that we're having this debate about essentially what's animal welfare and equine welfare which has, you know, there's no getting away from it. Equine welfare in Ireland has had a patchy history to say the least but I always come from the standpoint that the vast, vast majority of horse owners are very responsible with their horses. There is an element of irresponsibility and that was obviously born out in sulky racing on roads which is nobody can defend. It's completely reckless, it's completely dangerous not only to the people that are on the sulky, the horses and car owners so it's completely irresponsible for those that do it and for sometimes, actually most of the time, a vast amount of money can actually be involved in the practice as well. So, coming from an urban environment where I grew up, there's lots of horses in era kind of environment and so forth and there was an issue with kind of where you could actually stable your horse and so forth and that has evolved over time. There's a long tradition of owning horses in an urban environment and it's been a very, very positive experience in relation to the responsibility of owning a horse and that's the Department of Agriculture recently, the last three to four years, allocated a lot of money towards a project in Clondarkin, Clondarkin Equine Club, which is one of its only kind in Ireland where it's kind of, in Ireland where you can actually stable a horse and actually stable a horse in an urban environment and it's a controlled environment, an educational environment and a responsible environment and I think that's a very good way of actually bringing the practice of horse ownership in a rural background and an urban background. Just getting to the point of the bill, I just think by banning something, it will drive it more and more on the ground and that's what I think. And that's what it will do. If you ban sulky driving, racing, it will just have the opposite effect. Because what I can see is that there is regulation and laws there to prosecute anybody that does these things that are illegal, you know, it's obviously plainly obvious that it is illegal that they're doing. And because harness racing is a very responsible sport in Ireland and there's a really, really good track in Port Marnock and harness racing is done there very responsibly. It's very regulated and it's a really good sport to be involved in and to observe. So that is, it's important not to conflate, you know, some people that are completely irresponsible and there are those that are very irresponsible and they will do such things as we see online videos where they're racing horses recklessly on dual carriages as well. And that is, and that is going to lead to an accent sooner or later. So it's going to be very difficult to support Deputy McGrath's bill just in relation to, I understand is, you know, the kind of his sentiment is that for animal welfare, I understand that, but I think it will have the opposite effect. And in kind of driving sulky racing underground where it will be even more dangerous than it is now. So I think regulation, education, and kind of, I suppose, you know, engaging with sulky owners. And I think that's the way to do it. There's other parallels between what, you know, there's kind of scramblers that we have a kind of big problem with in urban environments. And I think if you, if you like laws alone, I think just won't solve this. I think, you know, you're kind of, there is laws there, but you need more regulation, you know, and control and to kind of to say to people, look at this is, you know, very, very dangerous kind of pastime that you're doing on national roads, which could lead to people dying. So on that, on that basis, it's going to be very, very difficult for P for profit to support this bill. Thank you.