Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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Before we hear from members, I want to make a few points as Chair. To say the “RTÉ Investigates” programme was disturbing would be an understatement. To see the way horses were treated was horrific in the extreme. As a country that prides itself on its horse racing industry and horse sport industry, Ireland must have suffered reputational damage if an abattoir like the one in question was allowed to operate under its jurisdiction. The horses were destined for the food chain. There is also collateral damage to our reputation as food exporters. When we allow something like what happened at the slaughter plant to happen, it definitely does reputational damage to our green image and reputation as producers of top-quality food. Therefore, there are many implications. I felt down by what I saw on the programme and how it was allowed to happen under our watch.

Before I refer to specific items, I want to read something Mr. Sheahan said to this committee on 20 July 2021:

I am happy to say we are very satisfied with how the slaughter plant here operates, or how the plants operated in the past. They are operated and regulated in much the same way as beef or sheep slaughter plants. We have a full-time official Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine veterinarian present at all times when slaughter is taking place. Ante and post-mortem inspection is carried out and temporary veterinary inspectors carry out the post-mortem inspection, supported by technical staff. We have very detailed guidelines as to how the slaughter plant operates and, in fact, we have a 51-page standard operating procedure detailing every aspect of how the horses are taken in, the documentary and identity checks, the ante-mortem and post-mortem and so on.

This was said to the committee three years ago during the Covid pandemic, so Mr. Sheahan would not have been present in the room. Relating this statement to the footage we saw this night two weeks ago and saying the Department is extremely disappointed that what happened was allowed to happen in a slaughter plant will take an awful lot of explaining to this committee.

It has been stated that the lairage was outside the jurisdiction of the plant. I cannot understand that; it defies explanation. In any factory I was ever in, Department officials had full access to the lairage. There would be a veterinarian, or at least a Department official, always present in the lairage. That some of the scenes we saw in the programme – including a mare foaling in the lairage while waiting for slaughter, the foal then being dragged out dead and then the mare being dragged out dead, in addition to other horses being dragged out dead – could happen under the Department’s watch is extremely disappointing.

There are several other questions I want to ask. I have asked them before but have never got answers. However, the day of our questions not being answered is now over. How many horses in this country are not microchipped? A number of years ago, we heard a percentage of 18% or 19%. We have been told that horse censuses have been carried out since. However, how can we have any confidence in a system in which a significant percentage of the horses have no identification?

In my part of the country, there have been three road accidents involving horses in the past couple of months. The three horses were either injured or killed in those accidents and, more importantly, occupants of the cars were seriously injured. None of the three horses was microchipped. There are large herds of horses in the vicinity that are let go unchecked. How many horses are exported live from this country? Have we a record of it? The programme the other night highlighted that many horses are being exported as car parts. It seemed to me that it is possible to take horses without any identification from this country to Northern Ireland, get identification for them and then proceed to have them slaughtered elsewhere or sold for another pursuit on the Continent.

How many horses were killed in the plant in Kildare last year? Are all the passports accounted for?

What happens to those passports? For cattle, your card is handed up when your animal is slaughtered. Have we a full record of how many horses were slaughtered there and their passports?

The post mortem is done by a veterinarian. It baffles me how anyone could do a post mortem on a horse and not find that there was a second microchip in the horse. If a second microchip is inserted, surely any credible post mortem would find it.

I do not want to hold up the meeting but on traceability, when you sell a horse, why is the record of that movement not automatically recorded? We are in an age of modern technology but on the traceability of horses, we are still back 50 years, in the 20th century. We are most definitely not availing of the technology out there. It has gone past the point of no return for us to get confidence in traceability and assurances. We need to move our use of technology on immeasurably. Things that were reported happening in that programme cannot be allowed to continue.

I think I speak for the entire committee when I say that every one of us here is extremely disappointed with what has happened. I will not leave a tooth in it. We are laying the blame at the Department’s door because this plant was under the supervision of the Department and the job was not done correctly. It is doing huge reputational damage to us. We cannot put the genie back in the bottle but, for certain, the assurances we got three years ago have proved to be empty promises. This committee intends to very much focus on these issues. We have focused on them in recent years but unfortunately the assurances that we received, etc., have proved to be false and we will not let that continue.