School campaign to promote horse racing developed without Department of Education consultation

Minister for Education Norma Foley was described as having her head in the sand.

The Minister for Education has said that a primary schools campaign run by Horse Racing Ireland to introduce children to the sport was developed without her department’s consultation.

Norma Foley said videos filmed on school grounds to promote the campaign did not fall within her Department’s remit, though the use of school property for commercial purposes is considered "not generally appropriate”.

Earlier this year, HRI launched the primary school campaign titled The Road To Racing with the stated aim “to teach pupils about the world of horse racing”.

The programme consists of four three-minute videos, describing the scope of the industry from the everyday work carried out in the stables to what happens on race day.

In publicising the initiative, HRI paid two primary school teacher ‘influencers’ €1,200 each to promote the programme, including the creation of a video that was hosted on HRI’s website.

A spokesperson for HRI said: “Horse Racing Ireland has used sports personalities, media personalities, and influencers to promote the sport of horse racing and the wider breeding industries."

Queried by Social Democrats TD for Kildare Catherine Murphy as to what input the Department of Education had, Minister Foley said her Department “was not consulted” regarding the initiative.

She said that “choices regarding educational materials, textbooks, educational products as well as digital and online services to support the implementation of the curriculum in schools are made by individual schools and their boards of management”, adding that the “current policy in the Department is not to endorse any products, publications or services from individual providers”.

Regarding the video created by an Instagram influencer and primary school teacher, Ms Foley said that “in the Department’s view it would not generally be appropriate for commercial content to be shot on school property”.

The Minister added however that “such decisions are a matter for the board of management/education and training board concerned”.

“The boards of management and school principals have a responsibility for the quality and effectiveness of education and the management of staff in a school,” she said.

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Ms Murphy described the Minister’s response as “head in the sand stuff”, and said the HRI programme amounted to “materials that are essentially creating a brand awareness with very young people”.

“If the Minister so wishes she can issue a memo or circular on the practice of the promotion of products or services in classrooms that are coming in under the guise of teaching resources,” she said, adding that “the judgement of some boards of management also needs to be questioned” regarding tolerance for the use of classrooms by influencers.

It is not HRI’s first encounter with social media influencers. 

Earlier this year, the RTÉ radio presenter and comedian Doireann Garrihy was paid €20,000 by the body to promote the Cheltenham racing festival.

HRI chief executive Suzanne Eade defended the use of such influencers however, saying it is “a proven, cost-effective practice, and has more cut through than some of the more traditional communication methods”.