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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 24 Jul 1975

Vol. 284 No. 3

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Live Animal Experiments.

5.

andMr. Healy asked the Minister for Health the total amount of the grant to the Medical Research Council during 1974; and the proportion of this grant used in connection with experiments on live animals.

6.

(Dublin Central), Mrs. Geoghegan-Quinn and Mr. Kitt asked the Minister for Health the total amount of the grant to the Medico-Social Research Board during 1974; and if any of the grant was used in connection with experiments on live animals.

7.

andMr. Dowling asked the Minister for Health the extent to which the drop of nearly 3,000 in the number of experiments on live animals in 1974, as compared with the previous year, was due to the adoption of alternative techniques not involving the use of animals.

With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle I propose to take Questions Nos. 5, 6 and 7 together.

The total amounts of grant paid to the Medical Research Council and the Medico-Social Research Board in 1974 were £230,000 and £106,000, respectively. Approximately one-third of the amount paid to the Medical Research Council was expended on experiments involving living animals. None of the grant paid to the Medico-Social Research Board was used in connection with such experiments.

In 1974 the total number of experiments carried out under the Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876, was 65,871, as compared with 68,525 in 1973. The decrease of 2,654 is not particularly significant having regard to the pattern established over a number of years, and on the basis of the information available it is not possible to attribute this decrease to the use of alternative procedures not involving the use of animals.

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