Natasha Newsome Drennan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)

Every year, this item comes before the Dáil and, too often, it presents as a black and white issue. As someone who grew up surrounded by greyhounds, was then involved in the thoroughbred sector for over 30 years and worked on stud farms across Ireland and England, I can tell you it is anything but. Animal welfare is an issue that is rightly raised. For the vast majority of us, these animals are treated as an extension of our own family. The children the Minister of State spoke about were like me as a child, and the pride you would have walking back in with your winner. Most of those greyhounds lived in our house half the time. They spent the last days of their lives on the end of our beds. They were like an extension of our family.

We need to see part of these funds allocated to the enforcement of welfare laws for all equine and dog breeds. We need real reforms to strengthen equine identification, traceability and welfare, considering not a single person has been prosecuted for failing to register equines in the past three years, despite widespread repeated offences. Horses are being neglected across Ireland right now. This is happening in rural Ireland and in our cities too. The Minister has said in the past that his Department takes equine welfare most seriously. He may believe that but with no prosecutions for horse neglect in the first half of this year, just four in 2024 and three in 2023, it certainly does not look like the Department is taking enforcement seriously. We need to see the agencies responsible for enforcement resourced properly so they can be effective.

We cannot let the minority drag the vast majority of responsible trainers and owners down. We need strong enforcement and real accountability. As I said, I spent over 30 years of my life in this sector. I still keep a couple of horses on our farm in south Kilkenny. I see the incredible impact this sector has across rural communities and the ripple effect of so much employment, not just the local vet. This ripple goes on to local shops, cafés and so on. We should be proud of those working in this sector and the exceptionally high standard of horses we have bred over the years. When I worked in England, Irish staff were very much the gold standard and highly sought after. This did not happen by chance. This is down to generational expertise and passion that has been passed on. We should learn from that and not just limit that potential of this funding. It should go beyond the thoroughbred sector.

At the Tullow agri-show, I met a fantastic group working with one of our native breeds; the Kerry bog pony. They does brilliant work but are left operating on a shoestring. We should strive to be world leaders in all aspects of equine, from the thoroughbred breeds and showjumpers all the way to our own native breeds.

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