Coveney defends presence of horse director in China

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney has defended allowing an executive to play a key role in the recent trade trip to China, despite him being disciplined for a conflict of interest involving horse sales to Chinese clients.

Michael O’Hagan quit as the chief executive of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing (ITM), and the director of international affairs at Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), on Monday. He was about to be disciplined for a second time for the role his wife, Josephine O’Hagan, played in private sales of show jumping horses to ITM’s Chinese thoroughbred clients.

However, the minister said allowing Mr O’Hagan to complete the organisation of the equine element of April’s trip to China was the right thing to do.

He said he had been aware of the outcome of the original inquiry but felt the breach of ethics issues at ITM had been addressed and he was happy to allow him to continue with the trip “in good faith”.

“I was made aware of issues that HRI acted upon in an appropriate manner, as regards the conflict of interest. But my understanding was that it had been put to bed and there was no reason to believe there was any other concern.

“There was a strong export horse element to the China visit and I don’t think there was any conflict of interest involved in the transactions of thoroughbreds.”

An official agriculture delegation from China is in the country at the moment to meet the minister and was hosted by HRI at a function last night. Today, at Leopardstown, Mr Coveney will sign an agreement with a Chinese agriculture minister on an agreement for exporting horses to China.

In February, Mr O’Hagan was disciplined by HRI following an inquiry into the deals his wife brokered with Chinese clients visiting on ITM-organised trips. the minister was made aware of its adverse findings following that inquiry.

However, it has since emerged that in March Ms O’Hagan was involved as a consultant in the sale of another showjumping horse to a Chinese visitor.

Last week, when HRI became aware of this it began another disciplinary process. However, on Monday Mr O’Hagan resigned from his posts with immediate effect.

Mr Coveney said that in the build-up to April’s trip to China, Mr O’Hagan had been responsible for organising its equine events and had been instrumental in developing contacts for Irish businesses in the country.

He said the disciplinary process was an internal matter for his employers, HRI.

He said Mr O’Hagan had made a huge contribution to the horse racing industry and had pulled the equine element of the China trip together. He said what happened subsequently was “very unfortunate”.

Mr O’Hagan could not be contacted yesterday, but has said the deals involving his wife were separate to those involving ITM.