Fears for jobs after cuts in betting tax

GOVERNMENT reductions in betting tax have endangered the future of horse racing and breeding in Ireland, according to the body which oversees the industry’s development.

Addressing a meeting of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee, yesterday, Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) chief executive Brian Kavanagh said his industry was “one of the few sectors in which Ireland has genuine claims to world leadership” but that it now faced considerable job losses.

Mr Kavanagh said that when HRI was established in 2001, its activities were to be fully financed by revenue from excise duty on off-course betting, but government reduction of this levy from 5% to 1% and a failure to effectively tax online, off-shore betting meant that the Exchequer now has to make up a shortfall in funding.