Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. This morning, I want to raise the matter of the rehoming of horses which are seized under the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013. I had my own Bill, the Animal Health and Welfare (Dogs) Bill, which passed Second Stage unanimously here. Unfortunately, the guillotine meant that it did not progress to Committee Stage yet.During the Second Stage debate I flagged to the Minister that it was pointed out to me after the drafting of my Bill that the same lacuna in the law applies to horses. Horses seized on welfare grounds must be retained by welfare organisations until court proceedings conclude. I asked the Minister to bring forward amendments to fix this lacuna at the same time as addressing the gaps I had pointed out in terms of dog welfare. The steering group set up to deal with the control of dogs and restricted breeds has accepted the need for my legislation. I presume it will bring forward its own legislation to address this. My concern is that it will not look at horses because it is working on a package of measures looking at dogs.

The reason I have tabled this Commencement matter is to flag once again to the Government that if we are going to close the gap and introduce legislation to deal with animal health and welfare, we need to get it right in one go. This means addressing the gaps in the re-homing of dogs and the re-homing of horses. I will give an example that has been in the newspapers multiple times. This is the case of a horse racer who had 35 counts of animal cruelty against her. The horses have been with a welfare organisation for a number of years. It has cost it €350,000 to keep the horses. They are thoroughbred racehorses that were in a state of neglect. They were taken in by the welfare organisation but it is that organisation which is footing the bill while the person tries to obfuscate and delay the court proceedings.

We all know the horse racing industry gets a huge amount of money from the public purse. When things go wrong in the industry it is the welfare organisations that must pick up the slack and clean up the mess left by the rogue operators. The bare minimum we should do is ensure that horses are re-homed as soon as possible and that people who engage in animal cruelty are not allowed to obfuscate and cause obstruction in the justice system. I look forward to hearing the response of the Minister of State.