Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sincere thanks to our guests for being here. They are bringing us a very important perspective on equine welfare in the broadest sense. We spend a lot more time than I would ever have envisaged at this committee talking about horses, from all different perspectives. It would be useful, if the opportunity ever arose, for the committee to visit one of the farms because often it is only when one is physically somewhere that one gets a true sense of it.

I would like to get a better understanding of where the problems lie. The issue that comes up when I speak to local communities who have found a horse in poor condition or dead is that they are passed from pillar to post. They are moved between the local authority, An Garda Síochána and back to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and sometimes they go around in circles. I gather from what the witnesses are saying is that there is co-ordination between the different statutory agencies. Is that fair to say?