Mr. Michael Sheahan:

As I said earlier, without a doubt the traceability system for horses in Ireland is nowhere near as good as the cattle system. Those involved have come a long way from when they started this journey to improve the traceability in 2007, but there is still has a long way to go. I am most familiar with the British system. Our system is broadly similar to the British system in the context of standards. It is also broadly similar to the French system. From what I know of the Hong Kong system, ours is arguably not as good. Hong Kong is a very different operation. It does not have trainers dispersed all over the country and it does not have the same level of movements. I am not as familiar with the American system. It varies but the Irish system is broadly similar to what I know of the other European countries. There is European legislation governing the whole identification and traceability of horses. It does not set the bar as high as it does for the traceability and identification of cattle. There is not too much doubt that there is a need to further improve the traceability. They have been on a journey in that direction and there are also moves such as the work on the equine census that will take place.