Mr. Michael Sheahan:

I do not think the problem is that horses are not registered. We talked earlier about what percentage of horses are not microchipped or whatever. That is certainly not the problem in the thoroughbred sector. There is no question they are not all registered, microchipped, passported and all the rest. What is missing is the movement system. It is the fact that when they move farm to farm or whatever, while there is an onus on the trainer, farmer or whoever to keep a record, an electronic record is not kept of it. That is where the system falls down. As I said, there are plans to try to address that though I cannot personally give the Deputy a commitment it is going to happen within six months. However, that is definitely the journey we are on. There is no question we are moving towards having a similar system for horses as we have for cattle. That is where everyone wants to get to. How quickly we will get there remains to be seen but there is quite a mood for that sort of thing at this stage, I would think.