Written answers

Tuesday, 28 March 2006

Department of Health and Children

Animal Welfare

11:00 pm

Photo of Mary UptonMary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 176: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the steps she has taken to halt the rise in experiments without anaesthetic on animals in Irish universities; if she will make a statement regarding the amount which has been spent by her Department in each of the past five years on the enforcement of legislation governing the experimentation on animals here; and if copies of a statistical report on the use of animals for experimental and other scientific purposes for 2003 and 2004 will be provided. [11764/06]

Photo of Mary HarneyMary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The use of live animals in scientific research and other experimental activity is strictly controlled in accordance with the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876, as amended. Under the Act, experiments on live animals can be performed by persons licensed by the Minister for Health and Children. In addition, animals must be properly anaesthetised for the duration of an experiment, unless a certificate has been given in advance certifying that anaesthesia is considered to be more traumatic to the animal than the experiment, or anaesthesia is incompatible with the object of the experiment and the required certificate or certificates have been given in advance certifying that insensibility cannot be produced without necessarily frustrating the object of the proposed experiment. Applicants must complete an official application form that requires full disclosure of relevant information about the proposed experiments. Applications and certificates must be endorsed by two qualified persons of professorial standing, as specified in the Act, from a relevant scientific, medical or veterinary discipline before submission for licence appraisal.

Under the Act, any case of non-compliance must be notified to the authority, which is the Minister for Health and Children. The Department has not received any such notifications in the period referred to by the Deputy. Statistics on the use of animals for experimental and other scientific purposes are compiled and made available every third year as required by the European Commission under directive 86/609/EEC, which relates to the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes. The latest published statistics relate to 2002. The Department is compiling the 2005 statistics, which will be made available by the end of June on the Department's website, www.dohc.ie.

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