Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We get many opening statements in this committee and I have not, in my term here, come across an opening statement as disturbing as the one Dr. Kirby made, in particular the fact that in Ireland and the UK in 2022, these fertility clinics can operate completely unregulated, according to his report, and I am not questioning the accuracy of it in any regard. We have the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and many justifiable rules on animal welfare, and rightly so, but is there any policing of these fertility clinics? If there was a rogue veterinarian on the bovine side, he would very quickly be found out and prosecuted. Have there been any raids on these fertility clinics or any prosecutions related to fertility clinics? How many are there in Ireland?