Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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100. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the action he has taken on the reports that UCC and Trinity College Dublin have been involved in experimentation on thousands of live animals each year; and his plans to deal with banning vivisection. [43664/19]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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Research work carried out on laboratory animals is performed under conditions as laid out in S.I. 543 of 2012 and associated Directive 2010/63/EU, and the research takes place under authorisations granted by the Health Products Regulatory Authority.

An animal welfare body (AWB) assesses research projects in terms of impact on animal welfare, and research protocols are approved by trained and qualified members of an ethical review committee. The research and the research facilities are audited by external regulatory bodies, for example, the Health Products Regulatory Authority and the Environmental Protection Agency.

While alternatives to live animal models are used by institutions (for example: cell lines, tissue / biopsy samples, bacterial and yeast models), this is not always possible.