Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2016: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Dr. Kevin Smyth:

The Deputy is correct in his point on the need to improve traceability. The system for horses is not as good as the system for cattle. We all know that and it must be addressed. We are doing more work on equine identification, ID, and horse passports. It is one of the areas we will be addressing in the response to the committee report with regard to equine ID. It has been highlighted by the members also. We will come back to the committee on the matter. A good development I should make the committee aware of is an equine census which will take place this year. It was announced recently. We will get a more comprehensive overview with regard to it but we agree we need to sharpen the system on equine ID.