The bloodstock industry accepts it is unfair that they are exempted from tax in certain areas, it was claimed in the Dáil.

The Labour Party leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said he and the party's finance spokeswoman, Ms Joan Burton, had met representatives of the stallion industry.

"They actually offered to make a contribution because they acknowledged it was inequitable that they were excluded," he said.

Stallion owners do not have to pay tax on profits from stud fees and pressure was increasing to lift that tax exemption. That position did not change with the Budget.

Mr Rabbitte claimed that the Taoiseach's "spin doctors" had "put it about in the media over two weekends that the bloodstock industry was going to be asked to make a contribution. I am quite sure that the Department of Finance must have agreed with that. What was desirable for a fledgling industry 30 years ago is no longer the situation, yet absolutely nothing has happened."

The bloodstock representatives had told him that "all they needed was a year to put forward the kind of tax structure that is sensitive to the needs of their industry", Mr Rabbitte said.

Describing the meeting as "very interesting", he said the representatives were "were worried about the dominant position which has occurred in that industry and I share that concern.

"They were worried about the notion of the sole trader being unfairly damaged by a simple extension of, for instance, the corporate profits tax regime to that industry. They said they needed time."

The bloodstock representatives had not met the Minister for Finance in the run-up to the Budget. "They said there was no need to meet him, it was us they were afraid of because we were the only ones raising this issue."

They would not be making a "contribution" while "Deputy McCreevy is the Minister for Finance. That would go against everything that he stands for and it would certainly go against the people with whom he goes racing."