THE issue of passport delays returned to the Oireachtas agenda recently with both Paul Kehoe TD and and Michael Fitzmaurice TD raising questions on the matter.

Mr Kehoe, in late November, asked Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue whether he was aware of the delays.

“This is a huge issue to many breeders who depend on the issuing of passports,” he said.

“I encourage the Minister and his Department to get on top of this, bring them (HSI) in and meet them to tell them this is causing huge concerns to many breeders. The Minister rightly said that this (foal exports) realised €293 million in 2022. The foal industry is part of the breeding process and important for exports and the good name of the Irish breeder. I ask the Minister to look into that”.

Mr Fitzmaurice said: “There is bickering and court cases and the Minister has to move in to put in place new committees or new people to look after things. It is not doing the industry any favours, when it (studbook operations) is getting the amount of money it gets from the taxpayers. It needs to realise that.”

Minister McConalogue said he was aware of the issues and that the department would be having ‘another engagement on Horse Sport Ireland in the coming weeks’.

In response to the latest Oireachtas comments, Paul O’Connor, Operations Manager at HSI, told The Irish Field: “There was a commitment made at the Joint Oireachtas Committee meeting by Horse Sport Ireland in November that we would issue 2,000 passports from then to the Christmas break.

“In total, 2,699 passports were issued during that period and all passports that were printed were posted to breeders.

“To date, a total of 3,218 foal passports have been issued to breeders and 2,571 remain to be issued.

“Since the last working week of 2023, DNA results have been received for 1,061 (41%) of remaining passports from the laboratory and we are actively working on issuing these passports at present.

“We are committed to clearing the backlog of foal passports this month, where DNA results have been received, and we are actively engaging with breeders where more samples are required, or further information is needed.”

O’Connor added: “While average turnaround times for foal passports has been eight to 10 weeks, some breeders have been waiting longer due to necessary additional DNA testing, more samples being required and missing information, such as covering certificates, not being received by us.

“Regrettably, this impacted some breeders with selling foals and receiving payment after sales.

“In addition, 3,301 (49% of the entire year’s) foal applications were received over a 10-week period at the end of 2023 and this created a backlog as staff worked to process these applications.”

HSI has come under intense fire over the matter from breeders, some of whom, as recently as this week, spoke of seeking legal action against the body to recover lost sales and the expense of keeping foals over winter.

The Connemara Pony Breeders’ Society, who have also been heavily criticized over delays, issued a separate update this week with a statement posted online stating that it is hoped 90 per cent of 2023 passports will be with breeders by the end of February.

It stated that, as at January 15th, only 52%(1,858) of passports had been issued, but assured breeders that 150-200 passports were being sent out each week.

Both bodies have repeatedly cited the DAFM-enforced transition from the old MS DNA technology to the more advanced SNP DNA technology as the cause of the delays.

In order to generate a reliable DNA result, it is essential to have the SNP genetic profiles of both parents of the animal. In the case of CPBS, it was explained that the stored DNA for certain parents was not of adequate quality for the new system, but that this was changed in November so foals can now be tested against their parents on the old MS system in order to get passports out faster.

Passports outstanding past the eight to 10 week average processing time, are mostly due to this.