Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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597. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine whether his Department carries out random auditing checks of the CC t/a Micro Dog ID database to ensure that owners are informing the database of any change of ownership, controller, location, death of greyhound, loss of greyhound or return of greyhound; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42671/24]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Microchipping of Dogs Regulation 2015 and Microchipping of Dogs (Amendment) Regulations 2015 require that 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 and the microchip number must be registered to an approved database. 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 and include the database mentioned. Dog owners, including greyhound owners, are free to use any of the four databases.

Animal Welfare Officers are authorised to obtain information from the approved databases in relation to individual microchips. Interrogation of the database is targeted to establish the traceability of a dog that strays, to assist in the return to an owner if a dog is stolen and can also be carried out in the investigation of welfare cases. These targeted interrogations also function to assess compliance with the regulations. My Department does not carry out additional checks beyond this.