Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

This is about ensuring that the regulatory body is empowered to do what it needs to do in terms of gathering information. Currently, under the Animal Remedies Act 1993 the Minister has power to appoint persons to carry out all the functions of an authorised officer. That means that if an authorised officer is appointed, he or she could walk onto any farm and have various powerful policing powers, and it is an all-embracing power. This is a significant change. We are saying that the Minister has the power to appoint an authorised officer for the exercise of all or any of the functions, subject to such conditions as the Minister considers appropriate. For example, this would allow the Minister decide that for the purposes of horse racing, a particular species, a particular set of locations - trainers' yards, race tracks - racing regulatory body officials could have the powers of authorised officers because when it comes to serious investigations or prosecutions the tendency is to engage with the Department's special investigations unit, which has the full powers of authorised officers. We would always envisage that in circumstances such as those there would be close co-operation between the Department and the turf club. Nevertheless, this is an enabling provision and therefore it would allow the Minister to expand the powers of turf club operators and qualify that in a way that it was not possible to qualify it in the past. The phrase "all or any of the functions" was previously "all of the functions", therefore, a turf club official could not be appointed to carry out all of the functions of an authorised officer because they are all-embracing and go way beyond the horse racing sector.