Mr. John Condon:

That was a big problem about ten years ago following the crash, when people abandoned horses they had bought for the children as they did not have the resources to maintain them. We often ended up, as local authorities, impounding them. It is true; a lot of them were not chipped but we found other situations in which a horse might have had two chips, which should not happen either. I was aware of various marts along the Border at which horses could be bought by teenagers for between €10 and €20. That kind of situation was very hard to regulate.

Now, as a result of enforcement, and I am particularly familiar with the situation in Mayo, we have demanded that the horses be inspected, scanned and microchipped, and if they have not been microchipped and licensed, we will impound them. When we started that process, it led to an increase. If a horse can be microchipped once, they will be in the system, and once they are into the net, there will be a better chance of maintaining that. The microchipping of horses is important in order that we will have some hope of establishing who the owners are, especially in case something happens and damage is done as a result. In a similar way, we are trying to enforce the microchipping of dogs, because it would be great if every dog were microchipped. If a sheep is killed, for example, at least the owner could be held accountable for that.