Mr. John Osborne:

The point to emphasis is how strong the identification process is. It now has five strands. Every horse is uniquely marked and recorded in the passport. Horses also undergo DNA analysis, are microchipped and are now issued with an e-passport, which is basically access to the centralised database that is built. We are working on the functionality that can flow from that database. We trialled a centralised holding of vaccination records. In the past, a horse whose vaccinations might have been a few days out of date would travel all the way to the races, only to be turned around at the stable gate. Now when the horse is entered, the vaccinations can be checked at entry stage and it will not travel to the races if the vaccinations are known to be out of date. That is a significant technological improvement available to us nowadays.

Identification is very strong within the racing programme. Ms Eade mentioned the fact that unnamed horses are now known, but the concept of a racing pool is also being rolled out. Once a horse is in training, it remains subject to the scrutiny of the regulator, regardless of where it may live. In other words, a trainer with a horse in his or her care is duty-bound to record that the horse has relocated to a different premises, until it is recorded as out of training or retired. We will know where the horse is throughout its racing life. That gives us a much better control of the horse.

One of the weaknesses is post racing and the degree to which we can maintain that record, transnationally. That is a problem with which all countries that have horses are grappling. It is interesting that this coincides with the Department's own equine census, which it completed at the end of last year. As Mr. Michael Sheahan updated the committee two weeks ago, the Department is planning to repeat the exercise again in December. That database will be of all equines in this country. We will be a subset of that but we feel we also will be leading the charge in terms of the technological solutions to some of the challenges and plugging the gaps. We are most keen to make sure that change of ownership is always up to date. It is currently a weakness in the system. We should always be able to name the person who is the keeper of the animal.