Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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560. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if a guarantee (details supplied) will be provided that equines have not yet received prohibited substances since their registration in order that the food chain be protected. [9897/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Officials of my Department considered this issue as soon as they became aware of the report. 

The matter relates to a cohort of passports issued in 2010 following the introduction of new legislation relating to equine identification and arose from a bone fides attempt on the part of Horse Sport Ireland to inform horse owners of the new requirements. The effect of this approach was that veterinary practitioners treating such animals, on examining these passports, acted in the belief that the animals in question had already been excluded from the food chain. Accordingly, they did not deem it necessary to record the medicinal treatments on the passports of the equines in question where they were treated with certain 'restricted' animal remedies.

As it is not possible to confirm from the identification documents in question that the corresponding equines have not been administered such medicinal treatments that are prohibited for use in equines entering the food chain, my Department is of the view that, in order to protect the food chain and public health, the equines corresponding to the passports in question must be excluded from the food chain irrevocably.

My Department has therefore written to Horse Sport Ireland, directing that they discontinue this practice.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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561. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if an organisation's (details supplied) licence will be suspended until a matter is resolved and assurance provided by it that its database is rectified and the data uploaded to AIMS is correct. [9898/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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A small scale problem with discrepancies between the data base used by Horse Sport Ireland and the Department's AIM system has arisen. Horse Sport Ireland and the Department are actively working to resolve apparent discrepancies between data held on a very small number of animals in the Department’s database and the Horse Sport Ireland’s studbook records. These relate to horses registered several years ago in the wake of the introduction of requirements to microchip animals and record their medicinal treatments.