Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 1 June 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Regulation of Sale and Supply of Pets and Animal Welfare: Discussion

Photo of Victor BoyhanVictor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for attending. I have three or four questions to ask. I acknowledge the important work that Horse Care Ireland does. As I asked the previous witnesses, Horse Care Ireland's representatives might outline its sources of revenue in terms of keeping the organisation afloat and covering its costs. They might also share with the committee any knowledge they have about culls of horses organised or authorised by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I am thinking in particular of commonages where there are large groups of horses, interbreeding issues and challenges. What knowledge have our guests of those culls? They might share that with the committee because it is important.

Does Horse Care Ireland monitor, look at or engage with local authorities? I am thinking particularly about urban areas where there are many horses, including places in Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Cork and Clare. Many people keep horses in inappropriate conditions at inappropriate sites or are without sites. There is an issue in many parts of the country and I would be interested if our guests could share with us any knowledge or synergies on which they are working with other welfare groups or local authorities.

Our guests might also share with us their professional relationship with the local authorities. Many local authorities have substantial funding earmarked for animal welfare issues and not all of it has been drawn down by many of the local authorities, as I said earlier. Our guests might just touch on their professional working relationship with local authorities, the challenges involved and any recommendations in that regard.

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