Mr. Michael Sheahan:

I will not comment on the programme in detail, as, like the members, I saw it for the first time last night. I will need to watch it again to pick up on some of the points in detail. Obviously, a few issues came up. For me the most striking issue was that of horse slaughter, so I might say a few words on that point in particular. There are other points as well, but the horse slaughter and the footage from the abattoir in Swindon struck home with me most. I will say a bit about what happens in Ireland in regard to horse slaughter.

For background, until January of this year, there was a so-called tripartite agreement in place which effectively allowed for the free movement of horses between Ireland, Britain and France. That free movement meant that there was no need for a health certificate or any other documentation apart from the passport to move a horse from here to Britain or to France. That has changed since 1 January 2021. Since then, if you want to move a horse from Ireland to Britain, you have to go through the full rigours of involving a veterinarian, obtaining a health certificate and so on, so it is now more complicated than it was before. Until January, horses could be moved between here and Britain and vice versawithout any difficulty.

In regard to horse slaughter, I have been involved in this area for about 20 years within the Department. At various times, we slaughter horses in Ireland. The number slaughtered varies from year to year. At one stage, we had as many as four slaughter plants in Ireland involved in slaughtering horses. Currently, we have only one slaughter plant. We have two approved plants, but one of them is out of action because there was a fire on the premises.

I am happy to say we are very satisfied with how the slaughter plant here operates, or how the plants operated in the past. They are operated and regulated in much the same way as beef or sheep slaughter plants. We have a full-time official Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine veterinarian present at all times when slaughter is taking place. Ante and post-mortem inspection is carried out, and temporary veterinary inspectors carry out the post-mortem inspection, supported by technical staff. We have very detailed guidelines as to how the slaughter plant operates, and in fact we have a 51-page standard operating procedure detailing every aspect of how the horses are taken in, the documentary and identity checks, the ante-mortem and post-mortem and so on.

I have been in our slaughter plants, although not in the last two years due to Covid-19 restrictions but certainly in the past, and they operate to a very high standard, as do our other slaughter plants. Probably, for those who saw the programme last night, and for myself certainly, the single most surprising thing about it was the apparent method of slaughter of the horses. What we saw on the footage appeared to be horses being led into a room or ante-chamber, and we appeared to see a slaughter-man with a rifle. In some cases, it appeared that he was taking a shot at the horse from a distance and in other cases it looked like he was holding the horse by the halter with one hand and apparently trying to shoot the horse with the other hand.

I have to say it was, to put it mildly, very surprising for many reasons, including health and safety reasons, and from an animal welfare point of view. For the avoidance of any doubt, that is certainly not something that happens here. I do not know if it happened in the distant past, but it certainly did not in my time. That does not happen. When horses are slaughtered in a slaughter plant here, they are dealt with in the same way as cattle. I am sure members have seen how slaughter plants operate. The horse, bovine or sheep goes up along a shoot and into a restraining box where it is properly restrained, stunned and killed. There is no question that we would allow an animal, such as a horse, to wander around a room or to be held by an individual attempting to shoot it. That was a surprising element of the programme, and that is certainly not what happens here.

As recently as 2019 we were audited by the European Commission's DG for Health and Food Safety, which used to be called DG SANTE. It did a comprehensive audit of our whole horse slaughter procedure, including the identification issues, residues, the ante-mortem, the welfare and so on. Their report is publicly available. In general, it was a very positive audit, as I would have expected. There are other aspects of the programme I can talk about, if the members so wish. However, for me, the aspect of slaughter was certainly the most striking.