Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he has any plans to introduce a centralised system for the issuing of horse passports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16164/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The identification and registration of equidae is governed by EU Council Directives 90/426/EEC and 90/427/EEC and Commission Regulation (EC) No 504/2008. The latter regulation, which came into effect on 1 July 2009, provides that equine animals registered after that datemust be identified with a passport and a microchip. This regulation also provides that, in the case of equines which are eligible for entry into a studbook, the passport must be issued by the organisation which is officially approved to manage the studbook for the breed in question in accordance with EU Directive 90/426/EEC. There are at present eight such organisations approved in Ireland.

I indicated in the context of my Department’s report on Equine DNA and the Mislabelling of Processed Beef that my ultimate objective is to establish a central passport issuing authority for which the Department would have direct control and under which agents would be approved to issue passports. I also indicated that EU regulations would have to be amended to deliver this centralised arrangement. In the meantime, the EU Directorate General for Health and Consumers has indicated in its recently published Action Plan for dealing with the fall-out from the horsemeat issue that it intends to submit a proposal to the Council and European Parliament for the transfer responsibility for the issuing of passports from Passport Issuing Organisations to the competent authorities. A formal Commission proposal is expected in the second half of 2013.

My Department has commenced consultations with the passport issuing agencies with a view to enhancing the existing procedures relating to equine passports pending the adoption of the proposed amendment to EU legislation.