Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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192. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if An Garda Síochána has codified offences under the Control of Horses Act 2015; and if so, the number of arrest and convictions for each of the offences, in tabular form. [30209/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As you may be aware, the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of An Garda Síochána under Section 26 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), which includes all operational policing matters and the management of the Garda PULSE system. As Minister, I have no role in such matters.

I understand that the Control of Horse Act 1996 is the relevant legislation enquired about by the Deputy and I am informed by the Garda authorities that there are 17 offence codes available under the code group 'A72A' in PULSE which are specifically to do with Control of Horses.

I am further advised that there are records of 1,967 charges/summons created using offence code A7236 ‘Animal Cruelty to Contrary to Section 1 Protection of Animals Act, 1911, as amended by Protection of Animals Act, 1965 and Section 48 of the Control of Horses Act, 1996’ . There are a further 373 records of charges/summons created using offence code A7209, 'Wilfully Permit a Horse to Pose Danger/Injury etc'. I understand that the earliest charge/summons dated back to 2001.

Additionally, 852 charges/summons created to date which refer to ‘control of horses’ in charge/summons details but which used a blank offence code or other offence code not within the ‘A72’ code group.

The data provided in this response was extracted by An Garda Síochána from PULSE on 5 July 2024. This is operational data and subject to change.

It should be noted that the Department does not record data relating to convictions, as this is a function of the courts.

The Courts Service has a dedicated email address for the provision of information to members of the Houses of the Oireachtas: oireachtasenquiries@courts.ie