Labour leader Alan Kelly has said there should be “minimum” staff from the Irish horse racing industry travelling to Cheltenham.
The festival kicks off on March 16 for four days but thousands of spectators will not flock to the event this year due to the pandemic.
However, there are still concerns that infection rates could rise in Ireland following the festival due to the B117 UK variant - which now accounts for 90% of Covid cases here.
Mr Kelly said: “Obviously as an industry that is allowed to operate under the government’s plan, everything will have to be done to ensure that the way in which people travel will have to be a minimum, a very minimum amount.
“And also all plans will have to be put in place to ensure that we don’t get an infection rate from it given what happened last year.”
Mr Kelly also waded in on the scandal surrounding disturbing images that have emerged of racehorse trainer Gordon Elliott sitting on a dead horse.
Separate images have also emerged of amateur Irish jockey Rob James also sitting on a dead horse. Both have apologised for their actions.
Mr Kelly said the images are “really deeply concerning from an animal welfare point of view.”
