ANSWERING questions in the Dail on Brexit, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD, pledged that his Department was doing everything possible to ensure the movement of horses overseas would be as user-friendly as possible.

Kildare TD Martin Heydon raised the estimated impact of Brexit on the movement of horses and the equine industry, asking could state aid rules be relaxed to help the €1bn racing and bloodstock industry?

Minister Creed said: “It does not just affect the thoroughbred sector because the sport horse sector also sees very considerable volume. I saw figures recently suggesting that anything up to 30,000 sport horses outside of the thoroughbred sector move east to west on an annual basis.”

Minister Creed said that he had raised the subject with Commission Paul Hogan last Monday in Brussels, speaking of “extensive and ongoing negotiations with the industry and the Commission on the matter”.

On the movement of horses if Britain becomes a third country, Minister Creed said: “There will be some additional administrative obligations but we are trying to make the matter as simple as possible to ensure that movement can continue because that is critical to the industry here. I am very conscious that it is a highly mobile industry and that anything that is perceived as an impediment could be to our disadvantage if it is not resolved.

“We are committed to working with the industry to make the new arrangements relating to when the UK becomes a third country as user-friendly as efficient as possible.”

Presently, EU rules on the movement of horses between member states require an inspection by an official veterinary surgeon and equines must be accompanied by a veterinary health certificate issued under the EU TRACES system and have a valid passport. Derogations from the standard movement rules does not apply to EU and third countries.

At present, the TPA (Tripartite Agreement that exists between Ireland, France and the UK) allows for the movement of equines between those three countries without undergoing veterinary inspections and without health certificates.

However, Minister Creed confirmed, “As the agreement is based on EU legislation on the movement of horses within the EU, the UK cannot be part of the agreement once it becomes a third country.”

NO DEAL PLANNING

Minister Creed said: “The current focus of our no-deal contingency planning is on the arrangements that will be necessary for the Department to fulfil its legal obligations with respone to import controls on live animals and agrifood products as efficiently as possible while also ensuring the minimum possible disruption to trading arrangements.”

Part of that planning involves the Department upgrading the BIP (border inspection posts) and developing additional border posts to cater for the increased workload.

Meanwhile, a comprehensive debate took place on the Second Stage of the Greyhound Racing Bill with lively exchanges between Deputies on the welfare of the greyhounds and stopping the export of Irish dogs to Pakistan, Macau and China.