Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I will be as comprehensive as I can in answering Senators' questions. Puppy farms have given rise to ongoing issues and this why the Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 has been commenced. It was necessary to delay that legislation until we finalised the Welfare of Greyhounds Act 2011 because there was crossover between general dog breeding and greyhound breeding, which was already regulated. These are different activities which required separate legislation. We needed to bring clarity to the legislation governing the greyhound breeding industry before we could commence the 2010 Act. Both Acts are now in force and I hope we will now be able to see a common standard on what is regarded as acceptable practice in dog breeding.

Poultry and pork is produced to a high standard in Ireland through intensive farming methods. The poultry and chicken meat industry has been very frustrated by the perception of that industry which has been exacerbated by certain programmes suggesting, for example, that water is added to chicken breasts to make them look bigger than they are - a practice that does not happen in Ireland.

Consumers are often deceived as to the origin of chicken and pork. Meat that is potentially sourced outside Ireland and outside the European Union can be repackaged here and then relabelled as Irish food, which it is not. I wish to reassure the Senators on the matter. I have taken some interest in this because of the accusations that have been made. Poultry is produced to a very high standard, but it is intensive production - there is no point pretending otherwise. European legislation has also been introduced, setting minimum space requirements for laying hens. Battery hen production no longer takes place and our industry is required to abide by new regulations which have been in force since January. My Department has provided grant aid to help the industry make that expensive alteration. We are now doing the same for the pig industry. The tethering of sows will become illegal from January 2013. Again we will need to work with the industry to finance the change, as people will be required to move to an open-housing system for pigs.

Even though people have expressed concerns over certain programmes and reports they have seen and read, a transition is taking place in Ireland and other parts of Europe requiring higher standards of animal welfare. Ireland has a pretty good record in the quality of food being produced and how it is being produced in terms of the intensive farming that takes place. It is unrealistic to expect that every chicken that ends up on a plate in Ireland would have run around the farmyard. We need to be practical while at the same time imposing appropriate standards for the quality of production. It is important for the industry that this point be made.

Legislation for the control of ragwort is already in place and there is an obligation on landowners or land managers to keep ragwort under control. If there are examples of it not being enforced as it should be, the Department needs to get reports of such cases and we will try to act on it because it is an important issue.

Senator Bradford spoke about horses. The economy collapsed from a boom period when many people entered the horse industry with every second person wanting to own the leg of a racehorse. There was a dramatic increase in the number of horses produced over a relatively short time. All of a sudden many of those people can no longer afford to keep horses. There was big concern over the potential number of abandoned horses and I asked the equine centre to prepare a detailed report in order to get a handle on the numbers. We are collecting a considerable amount of data and are trying to get on top of the issue.

We have done a lot on equine management and health care in the past 12 months. Horses are required to have passports and microchips. Horse owners are required to register the address at which they keep horses. We are building a database that will allow my Department to know where all the horses in the country are located, who owns them and who is responsible for them. A horse running along the road that has been released is likely to have a microchip or a passport that can connect it back to an owner. People will abuse these things and during a transition period many horses will not be microchipped and will not have passports because there has been a fairly blasé attitude to this in the past and a considerable amount of - literally - horse trading goes on in Ireland. We are in that transition period but people understand we are taking the issue seriously.

We are legally obliged to ensure that horses that do not have a full record of their history cannot go into the food chain. This means that a person wanting to put a horse down cannot do so at a factory that would pay him or her because we need to keep non-registered horses out of the food chain for good reason. Some have suggested the system is not working as well as it should in ensuring that horses without full traceability do not end up in the food chain. My Department is seriously reviewing that matter to ensure factories, horse owners and animal welfare organisations looking after abandoned horses act responsibly. Much is happening in the equine management and welfare area showing that my Department is behaving in as responsible way as it can, which will continue. I have a great personal interest in equine welfare.

One of the driving forces behind increases in fines and penalties for cruelty are some of the wanton examples of appalling cruelty to horses that are being kept in poor conditions but also horses that are being used as targets - for example taking a slash hook to the tendons of horses. That type of activity must be stamped out and we need to introduce very tough penalties to make examples of people who behave in such a totally unacceptable way. We need to send a very strong signal that the Government will not tolerate activities such as dog fighting and wanton cruelty and we will give the Garda and authorised officers the legislative structure to be able to deal with it in a very tough way.

That brings me on to the issue of forcing animals to fight each other - mainly dog fighting but also cock fighting. The bating and training elements of that disgust me. That garages in urban areas are being prepared for audiences to come and watch two animals rip each other apart is from another era and even then it was not acceptable. That is why it is important to give the Garda the capacity to be able to get convictions. I will request the Garda to make an example of people and send out a very strong signal in order to try to undermine this underground industry, which is much more active throughout the country than many of us might realise. My views on dog fighting are clear.

We will not insert a section in this legislation to ban animals from circuses. The responsibility for caring for animals applies to a circus as it applies to a household or anywhere else. A person who owns an animal has the obligation to provide the protection and resources required to look after it. If we get credible reports of cruelty to animals at circuses, we will send authorised officers to investigate and make a judgment. Nobody is immune from the law.

This brings me on to the concerns of farmers and farming organisations. There will not be an army of people waiting to catch out farmers.