Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Much ground has been covered and I will try not to rehash any of the questions. I am proud of our horse and greyhound racing industries but that does not mean we cannot challenge them, particularly with respect to accountability and animal welfare. I remember when I was young growing up in rural Ireland there was a horse dealer who said most horse dealers can say they have good horses but it takes a very good horse dealer to admit he has a bad horse. There are many bad horses in horse racing and by "bad" I mean horses that do not cut the mustard or meet the grade. For example, a broken down three or four-year-old gelding is pretty much worthless. Accountability and traceability come into play in what happens to such horses. The Department and its officials did tremendous work in this area, particularly after the horsemeat scandal. I raised this issue with the Minister last November and with Department officials at this committee. I am still concerned about the efficacy of registration and traceability in the equine sector. It is light years behind bovine registration and traceability.

I raised the case of a sports horse breeder from County Longford last November. It is a different genre but the similarities are probably relevant to the discussion. The breeder flagged with Horse Sport Ireland last November that when he checked the ownership breeder records, 18 horses on the Sport Horse Ireland register were still registered to him. Of the 18 horses, two were dead, two had been exported and subsequently died, three others had been exported, nine had been sold but the registrations had not been updated, one he had never owned and the final one had been sold, subsequently exported and the records had not been updated.

There is much work to be done but it would provide great reassurance to the public if we could significantly improve traceability in the sector. I cite the example of that broken down three or four-year-old gelding. In particular, if a horse is a thoroughbred, there would not be much meat on it and there is a concern about where these animals end up. We are conscious of that. There is a lot of movement of horses. Anecdotally, we are told a large percentage of those that do not make the grade are culled by the big yards and big owners. This is probably more a question for the officials. In light of the information I shared on the case that was flagged with Horse Sport Ireland, are they satisfied with the current position or do they consider some work needs to be done on the registration and traceability of equine records?