Mr. Michael Sheahan:

We do not know that. We think the horse population in total is about 90,000 to 95,000. My colleague Ms MacAodhain might be better able to answer that. We do not know how many horses are not microchipped. We have a sense that the number of unidentified horses is much less than it was. I use the example of Ballinasloe fair. We did an operation with the Garda some years ago where, for the first time, gardaí set up checkpoints on the gathering for Ballinasloe fair and we accompanied them. The first year we did it, probably 10 years ago, the number of horses arriving at the fair without passports was very high. I would say 10% or 20% had passports. On the day, the approach we took, with the agreement of the Garda, was simply that we told people that if they came back next year without a passport they would be turned away and-or prosecuted. The second year we did it, the number of horses without passports was very small and, the third year, virtually no horses turned up, even in Ballinasloe, without passports. That is just one sample. Ballinasloe is a big fair and it is one sample. It is impossible to give an accurate answer about how many horses are in the country without microchips but every indication we have is that there are generally far fewer unwanted horses, abandoned horses, than there were but as the Chair will be aware, there are still plenty of problems.