Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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118. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will create a centralised database for dog microchips; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4588/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is responsible for S.I. No 63/2015, the Microchipping of Dogs Regulation 2015 and S.I. 427/2015 - Microchipping of Dogs (Amendment) Regulations 2015. Under these Regulations, all dogs over 12 weeks of age (or younger if sold before 12 weeks) must be microchipped.

It is illegal to sell/supply a dog that is not microchipped. The microchip number must be registered; this helps to ensure the traceability of a dog that strays and improves the chance of return to owner if a dog is stolen.

The question of a centralised database for dog microchips remains under consideration by my Department. A recently announced proposed regulation at EU level to improve the traceability of dogs and cats includes a proposal for each member state to establish a national microchip database for dogs and cats inter-operable with similar databases in other Member States. These proposals are currently being assessed and considered.

Under the current system, there are four microchip databases in Ireland, run by private operators. These companies are authorised by my Department to register owner details for dog microchips.

As specified in the Regulation, the database operators must provide details of microchips they hold to Europetnet, an umbrella group of associations across Europe which register owner information in relation to uniquely identified dogs.

When a chip number registered to one of the four authorised databases in Ireland is entered into the publicly accessible search tool, Europetnet will state which affiliated database the chip is registered to. This enables follow-up with the relevant database.