Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are two pieces of law that cover horse control and horse welfare in Ireland. There are many people who live within those laws and many who do not. Nobody in this country has a cultural entitlement to unconditionally own a horse. Many of our families in the 1940s and 1950s had horses and carts before the family bought a motorcar. That does not confer a right on any of us nowadays to own a horse. I would have loved a horse growing up, and perhaps the Taoiseach would too, but my parents did not have land. We did not own a horse. We did not put it in the living room or tether it to the local signposts where we lived. We did not do any of that because we have respect for animals. These laws are robust. The enforcement of them often is not. I am not blaming the Garda, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine or the council.

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