Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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43. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the person or body responsible for conducting post-mortems on whales found dead on beaches here; if an analysis has been conducted as to the cause of the recent spate of deaths; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16742/19]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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There is no legal responsibility assigned to a body for conducting post-mortems on large whales found dead on Irish coasts. Such strandings are infrequent, are logistically problematic and post mortems require particular expertise which is not normally available in Ireland. My Department is not the body responsible for the conduct of such post mortems.

I understand, however, that a programme is operated by the Marine Institute, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group and the Regional Veterinary Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to carry out post mortems on a number of dolphins and porpoises each year. This work is co-funded with the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.