Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

That is a fair point and it is the reason we need codes of conduct in welfare organisations, not just for horses but for other animals as well. We must balance the support for well-meaning people who in many cases are looking after abandoned animals at their own expense. I know a number of them and they are well-meaning animal lovers who are looking to help as many abandoned animals as they can and set up partnerships with welfare organisations in the United Kingdom to have animals rehomed there when it is appropriate to do so. That is welcome but we must put some regulations in place that are not necessarily legally binding but would be put in place by a code of conduct. For example, if a horse is abandoned in Galway, picked up by the local authority and taken to a safe location such as stables in the midlands or wherever, we must allow an authorised officer or an veterinarian to make a decision on that animal in terms of its state of health, age and so on, whether it is suitable for rehoming and if it is not, within a reasonable period of time that animal should be put down.

We cannot have a situation whereby animals are kept for very long periods in the hope an owner might show up. An agreed period of time must be laid down in codes of conduct that I can change and improve, depending on circumstances, to allow us get on with rehoming animals or put them down in a humane way if it is possible and appropriate to do that. That is the kind of limbo councils find very frustrating in that they are being asked to care for animals indefinitely while somebody somewhere is making a decision or, in some cases, nobody anywhere is making a decision. We need to either rehome these animals or make a decision on putting them down and allow an adequate period in which somebody can reclaim the animal if they know it is missing but, unfortunately, most of these animals are abandoned for a reason and the likelihood of them being reclaimed is slim. The kind of abandonment that requires reclaiming is when someone leaves a gate open or a fence breaks and an animal gets out and it is picked up. In those type of instances owners will look for their animals and want them back, and they deserve a reasonable period to be able to do that.