Horse Show Day Two:Stricter enforcement and inspection of passports and ID for horses to ensure compliance with EU regulations, were announced at the Fáilte Ireland Horse Show in Dublin yesterday.
As the announcement was being made, the RDS suspended two horses at the show for breaches of regulations.
The horses were Laraghlease Western Desert ridden by Stephen Smith and Conduct ridden by Conor Swail.
Smith's horse was suspended from any further participation in the show because he had no valid international passport while Conduct's passport was out of date.
Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan said her department's officers will now have enhanced powers in the enforcement of the EU regulations on identification of horses.
Marts, sales yards and other premises where horses are assembled will be required to ensure that horses entering their premises have valid passports.
She said department inspectors will carry out random inspections to ensure compliance with these regulations.
"Compliance with the new regulations is essential for the protection of the country's equine population and industry, with the sport horse sector alone now worth in excess of €400 million and involving 53,000 people," she said.
The Minister said it was just over a year since Ireland experienced its first case of Equine Infectious Anaemia (EIA) and the country now appreciated the necessity of having an effective identification system for horses.
"This will mean stricter enforcement of the passport regulations. If a horse is being moved it will have to have a passport and if it does not, it will have to be returned to its stables," she said.
The new regulations would also carry penalties for those who breached the rules, she added.
"The truth is that we do not know how many horses we have in the country and until each has a passport and there are regulations to deal with their movement, we will not know," the Minister said.
She also announced that she would be supporting the EU move to have a national database for horses in each member state by 2009, using microchip technology.
On the outbreak of EIA, she said she was glad to report that the disease had been eradicated here. She had "very strong words" with the Italian authorities who had not revealed the level of EIA infection there, despite the fact that it was a notifiable disease.
She believed there was not enough evidence to bring a criminal charge against those who brought the disease here.