Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

It is hard to know where to start, such is the scale of the horrific abuse of horses revealed in the "RTÉ Investigates" programme broadcast last week. The first thing to do is to thank the makers of the programme and the whistleblowers who spoke to them, and acknowledge the investment of resources and so on undertaken by RTÉ to reveal what is taking place in this massively publicly-funded industry, namely, the horrendous abuse of horses. I also thank those campaigners from organisations such as My Lovely Horse Rescue, the National Animal Rights Association, NARA and others that have been highlighting issues around the mistreatment of horses for a long time and that have managed, for example, to apply pressure for Shannonside to be shut down, at least for now.

What was revealed in the programme was, first, and most shockingly for people, the incredible and awful abuse, including that undertaken by supposed animal welfare officers, at Shannonside slaughterhouse just before animals were due to be killed. They were treated in the most brutal and inhumane manner as worthless, not worth any care and as pure objects to be kicked around or to be left dying on the floor. Second, massive smuggling of animals was revealed. It was estimated by RTÉ that up to 20,000 horses go missing each year from this country. The third revelation was fraud in the form of the changing of passports and microchips being entered into horses to facilitate them being exported as something other than what they were. Fourth, significant issues were found around food safety, where it appears that animals used for horse racing or showjumping were extremely likely to have had bute used on them. That is an extremely common painkiller for horses entering the food chain for human consumption when it is not safe for humans to eat. All that was underpinned by €76 million of public money going into the industry this year. From previous investigations and FOIs, we know the majority of that money is ending up with extremely rich individuals as tax-free prize money.

How has this been allowed to happen? There are two explanations.

One is that the Department of agriculture, HRI and the IHRB have been asleep at the wheel and the other is that a blind eye has been turned to what has been going on.

We have told that this horrendous, we are going to carry out an investigation and we will make sure that it does not happen again, the implication being that this is just one rotten apple when Shannonside Foods was the only slaughterhouse for horses in the country. As such, it is the entire barrel of apples in reality. In 2021, a “Panorama” documentary showed that Irish horses were being treated in the same way in slaughterhouses in Britain. The same promises were made then, but nothing seems to have changed.

I read in today’s edition of the Irish Mirrorthat, in 2018, a situation involving two sets of microchips in horses was revealed by a vet within the Department of agriculture. The matter was notified to the Government at the time and there was supposedly an investigation. We do not know what happened in that regard. The matter was also notified to the current Minister for agriculture, who was then Fianna Fáil's spokesperson on agriculture. Why is it going to be any different this time?

I will pose a number of questions to the Minister of State quickly. Where was the Food Safety Authority of Ireland in all of this? It has not even been mentioned. Why did the Department of agriculture inspectors, who would have been present when the slaughtering of the horses took place, never inspect the area where this incredible abuse was taking place? Are we going to have a proper digital passport system for horses? Are we going to deal with the systematic overbreeding of horses that underlies much of this? Are we going to have a proper independent investigation and independent regulation that is not done by industry, which is an incentive to continue with this industry?

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