Mr. Martin Blake:

As the Chairman said, many questions were asked, some of them several times. I will start at the beginning with Deputy Cahill's question, which was raised again subsequently, on the security of the food chain. We all recall the contamination of beef with horsemeat back in 2013. At that time, we undertook a significant review of the controls used for how horses are traced, identified and checked into the food chain. We now have enhanced controls in place. Since then, we have also established a central database in which any animal presented for slaughter must be registered. Food business operators must cross-check animals on the database. They must also cross-check passports for their authenticity if they have any suspicions about them and check the entries regarding prohibition for slaughter as well. That is verified by our Department inspectors and we also check the identification. We can cross-check any passport we have a concern about with the passport-issuing agencies. More recently, we have started harvesting microchips post-slaughter in order to cross-check them. There is, therefore, a robust check for animals going in for slaughter at this point. We are always seeking to make incremental enhancements and we apply additional controls when we find a particular issue of concern.

On the numbers of horses being microchipped, we estimate that between 20,000 and 25,000 foals are born in Ireland every year and that we have a horse population of approximately 250,000. Data from the past couple of years suggest that the numbers of young foals microchipped, identified and registered stood at 17,800 in 2016, 18,600 in 2017 and 19,900 in 2018. While we cannot be sure there is 100% compliance with the practice of microchipping foals as they are born, and we acknowledge that is unlikely, we are satisfied that the level of compliance is significant and increasing.

We note the point about State agencies and lands and it is something we reflect on. It is true that we are unable to identify who is responsible for abandoned horses if they are not microchipped.

I ask Mr. Murphy to update the committee on our positioning with regard to the Control of Horses Act 1996.