Ms Bairbre Nic Aongusa:

We are in discussions with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine regarding the potential transfer of some responsibilities in the area as a move towards consolidating the work around breeding establishments. The discussions are at an early stage. My understanding is that it concerns the functions of our Department has regarding dog breeding establishments.

As I said in my opening statement, our responsibility as a Department is a policy responsibility. We are responsible for the legislation and the operational responsibility rests with the local authorities and their vets.

When I was answering earlier about databases, I did not have my note to hand. Perhaps I will go back to the question asked before. The dog licensing database was established in 2018 by the local authorities and a microchip number can be recorded on a licence but it is not mandatory. There was a question about linking the microchipping and dog licence database, and a policy decision was taken to keep the two separate for a number of reasons. A link was not technically feasible because dog licences do not contain a unique identifier and there were data protection issues as well about databases handing over personal details other than individual cases.

There was also a concern when setting up the microchips database that there could be a negative impact on the uptake of microchipping, which was being introduced for animal welfare reasons, if people were also required to buy a licence at the same time. Another concern came from the local authority side about a potential loss of earnings. As the committee knows, local authorities collect dog licences and depend on those for dog warden operations.

We could give consideration to amalgamating databases, but if that happened, an amendment would be required for the statutory instrument that prescribes dog licensing. The database would require much coding change. Currently, dog licences may be purchased at post offices and there would need to be further discussion with those post offices. Of course, we would also need to discuss this with colleagues in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who are responsible for microchipping. It would be quite a complex operation to link the two databases. We try to have very good co-operation at official level between the two Departments to overcome those kinds of issues.