Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

Imperfect as it might be, the evidence should be on the passport. We are now developing an E-passport system that might have the medicines records on it. We are looking at the possibility of DNA-type identification. Potentially we could require people to register a DNA sample and then we could test the carcass after slaughter, to make sure it is the same horse.

We are also developing a national veterinary prescription system with an IT-based system, and we could link those systems up. These are all possibilities we are looking at and that we would expect Professor Patrick Wall to look at.