Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Kenny and I compliment MLHR on the work it is doing. I take issue with the paragraph on the second page of the submission. Maybe it was not intentional to send this message but it states: "The horses of Ireland are being starved, neglected, beaten and dumped." The vast majority of horses in the country are extremely well looked after. I fully accept that we have an issue and we have an issue with all animals, be they horses, dogs or whatever but the vast majority are well looked after. The way that paragraph was written implies that the majority of horses are being neglected, which is not the case.

I would have a big issue with the fact that microchipping of horses is not being enforced by the Department. The last time I asked the question I was told that 19% of horses in the country were not microchipped. When someone finds an instance of cruelty and the owner cannot be traced it makes it difficult to prosecute and I cannot understand why this is not being enforced by the Department. Every cow has to be clearly identified, for example. If an inspector or departmental official comes onto a farmer's land and he does not have all his cattle clearly identified, he will be prosecuted straight away and suffer a severe financial penalty. It baffles me that this is not being enforced because if it was enforced, it would be a lot easier to bring the people who are mistreating horses to justice. I am not telling Ms Kenny her business because she is obviously good at it but this is something MLHR should keep the pressure on the Department about. Microchipping is provided for in legislation and every horse is meant to be microchipped. There was a "Panorama" programme a year and a half ago, which showed a horse that had broken its leg racing in Fairyhouse and a number of years afterwards it appeared in an abattoir in the UK. Those things should not happen and if horses were microchipped they would not happen.

Ms Kenny's points on funding are extremely well made. With the number of cases MLHR is dealing with, the budget it has is miserly. Deputy Martin Browne and I work with Tipperary County Council, which has a vet who looks after animal welfare. Unfortunately, we have encountered a significant number of incidents. The county council will say it does not have the funding to impound the horses. It is an issue that needs to be co-ordinated. If a county council is moving to impound horses it cannot be worrying about the budget to do it. If there is cruelty there then the situation has to be dealt with.