John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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515. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will introduce a system of licensing and regulating the use of horse-drawn vehicles (details supplied). [30927/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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While there is no licensing regime for drivers of animal-drawn vehicles comparable to the system of driver licensing for mechanically propelled vehicles, nor are animal-drawn vehicles subject to NCT-type tests, I have no plans at present to change the law in this regard.

However, the same traffic driving rules apply to horse drawn vehicles and their drivers as do to drivers of mechanically propelled vehicles and cyclists. Similarly, the same obligations to obey the rules of the road and to drive with care and consideration to other road users apply. Sections 52 and 53 of the Road Traffic Act of 1961 deals with the careless and dangerous driving of vehicles, while Section 51 specifically prohibits the driving of an animal drawn vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or a drug.

The matter of licences for horse ownership, as well as the question of chipping animals, and animal welfare, fall within the remit of my colleague the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.​