Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank and commend Deputy Mattie McGrath on bringing this important issue to the House via legislation. It is Sinn Féin's intention to support the passage of this Bill on this Stage to ensure we have an opportunity to debate and thrash out all the issues that have been outlined. I am disappointed that the Minister has taken a different approach. This is a real issue. A Deputy would not go to the effort of drafting and bringing a Bill before this House unless this issue was being raised in offices by concerned individuals in our communities.

These concerns are multifaceted. There are concerns regarding road safety and equine welfare and neither of those issues is being adequately addressed. The Minister referred to the powers of the Garda. The difficulty is that there are distinctions and difficulties with road traffic law because it is not an offence to have a horse- or pony-drawn carriage but it is an offence to race them. There is often a difficulty determining whether something constitutes a race. Horse-drawn carriages of course are not allowed on motorways at all, and we have seen some dangerous instances in this regard in recent years.

I am sure Deputy Mattie McGrath, the Minister and others will be aware that there are major problems with equine welfare throughout this State. It is not necessarily a problem with the legislation per se. The Minister mentioned the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 and the role of the local authorities and others. The problem, however, is that when issues regarding equine welfare are raised with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, they are then pointed in the direction of the local authority, from where they are then pointed in the direction of the Garda and from there they are directed back to the Department. There is not a clearly defined line of responsibility where people take charge of this issue. In most parts of the country, almost no dedicated staff and resources are allocated to the monitoring of equine welfare issues.

I would have thought that this Bill presented the ideal opportunity to start dealing with these issues and I was looking forward, as a member of the agriculture committee, to teasing out the provisions of the Bill as they stand to see where we could improve them and make them more robust, in conjunction, of course, with the Minister and the Department. I think that would be the best approach to dealing with these issues. There are several areas we must address. We must deal with the issue of equine welfare. It is absolutely pivotal; too many aspects of the existing legislation are being ignored and there are too many gaps in it.

We must get this right because animals, and horses in particular, have a special place in the Irish psyche. They are beautiful animals, as has already been said, and they have played a major part in the development of Irish culture over many years. That has not only been in rural communities because Ireland is almost unique in having an urban culture in respect of horses. Unfortunately, however, that culture has had very negative connotations in recent times. I do not believe it needs to have those negative connotations. We should work with those communities and urban centres that have had a tradition of horse ownership, as well as with other communities, including the Traveller community, which have traditions and cultures associated with horses, to ensure we get over the negative perceptions concerning this area and address the real animal welfare concerns regarding how some animals are being treated. We could then create a vibrant and dynamic new culture of animal and horse ownership, which respects the welfare of horses all the time. These are important issues and they warrant substantial debate and teasing out on Committee Stage. For that reason, Sinn Féin will be supporting this Bill.

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