Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will respond first to Deputy Mick Wallace's point on the statement made by Dr. Thomas Reed. He is not the person who decides on policy in Ireland. However, he is correct that the database will not solve all problems. However, I never claimed it would. We are introducing a database because it is the right thing to do and we said we would do so. We want to have a handle on the numbers of horses in Ireland. In time, every horse in the country will be microchipped and have a passport. This will ensure we will have the same knowledge of the horse sector, in terms of the types of horses owned, where they are and who owns them, as we do of the beef sector. That is the reason for having a centralised database. I want to go further, which is what I believe people like Dr. Reed would like me to do. We also want to have a centralised body for issuing passports in order that we can impose the controls and standards required in terms of the need for accuracy.

Some of the current issuing bodies are very good at what they do. Some such as Weatherbys, Horse Sport Ireland - I do not want to pick and choose between the two of them - and others do a very good job and we will be working with them but, ultimately, I want my Department to have central control of the standards for the issuing of equine passports, microchips and any other identification systems we may introduce. I have said clearly in my answer today that once the European Commission gives us the green light to do that, we will press ahead and do it. It will bring forward a proposal to change EU regulations in this area to allow us do that in the second half of this year.

Deputy Broughan is clearly a great horseman. I do not recall not being able to answer questions he asked.

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