Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Commissioner. My next question concerns age-old laws that allow horses to be on the roads in Ireland. It is probably a throwback to yesteryear, when many families did not have cars but did have a pony and trap, a donkey or whatever they could afford. It is still nice to see a horse being brought around when appropriately tethered to a cart. It is a nice traditional thing. Although it is not my cup of tea, many people enjoy taking horses out for a sulky ride on a weekend. However, there are races happening on open public roads. Sometimes, this is happening on dual-carriageways where vans and jeeps close off the road and all the public traffic is held up behind them while this wild-west-style race to an endless finish line takes place. Where does An Garda Síochána stand in the context of this type of scenario? We hear very little about it clamping down on this activity. In some parts of the country, it is a Sunday morning thing. It happens every Sunday or every second Sunday. In this day and age, from the perspective of animal welfare and road safety, there is no justification, cultural or otherwise, for someone to be driving a horse down a road like that and putting everyone at huge public risk.