Ms Claire Owens:

That is a proposed project. It would be slightly different to the Dunsink project because it is specifically aimed at the Traveller community.

I work as a welfare officer for the Irish Horse Welfare Trust. I work on the ground with a lot of horse owners. Two areas need to be highlighted that feed very much into the problem of unregulated horses. The monitoring of ports must be addressed. There is not enough funding or resources to properly monitor the movement of horses in and out of Irish ports. Trucks come into urban areas and horses are sold off the back of a truck for €50 or €20. That feeds the unregulated urban horse problem.

Another area on which we have received many unsubstantiated reports from different sectors of the community relates to pounds. We would like to see better regulation in that regard.