Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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154. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of prosecutions in respect of the failure of owners to chip their horses since January 2013, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16956/22]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Enforcement of equine identification legislation is largely undertaken by authorised officers across the Regional Offices of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine who liaise with authorised officers in the Local Authorities and other organisations as required.

S.I. 62 of 2016 (as amended) provides for the enforcement of requirements for the identification of equines. This provides authorised officers with enforcement powers, including the potential for prosecution of keepers who have unidentified equines in their care. It also provides for the issuing of compliance notices.

The Department's policy is to adopt a fair and proportional approach in dealing with breaches of equine identification legislation. In this regard, authorised officers engage with keepers to ensure that they understand their responsibilities and where potential breaches of the legislation are identified, they generally provide an opportunity for non-compliant keepers to rectify the position within a specified timeframe.

There have been no prosecutions since January 2013 with regard to the failure of owners to microchip their horses.