Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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136. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he intends to introduce a single centralised national database for dog microchip registration data as this would improve visibility on dog breeding and selling and improve the overall regulation of this business to the benefit of overall public safety and the welfare of dogs. [25565/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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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 and the microchip number must be registered to one of 4 approved 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 requirements support responsible breeding and pet ownership as incidences of neglect, mistreatment or irresponsible breeding practices can be linked to an accountable person through the registered identity of the dogs involved.

My Department is currently considering how best to achieve centralised access to all dog microchip numbers. A 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.

A number of options are being examined with a view to selecting that which best improves dog welfare and public safety.