Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 11 May 1994

Vol. 442 No. 6

Adjournment Debate. - Wandering Horses in Urban Areas.

Mr. Kenneally

I thank the Chair for the opportunity of raising this matter. Although the instances of wandering horses occur in my own area of Waterford city, this is a national problem, particularly in the larger urban areas. The Minister of State at the Department of the Environment is present, and one of the problems is to find out who is responsible in this area. Is it the Department of the Environment, the Department of Justice or the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry?

I sent people to one estate in Waterford City to count the horses roaming around the place. One counted 29 and another 30. These horses were just running loose and are very dangerous because they are not tethered. Three or four of these animals are in foal and another four foaled recently. This makes them even more dangerous because they are likely to lash out at anyone who approaches them. Children in particular do not know how dangerous they are.

This estate is close to a national primary road and on a few occasions previously these horses wandered on to that road which bisects the Ballybeg estate and the regional college. In one instance a couple of years ago while small children were going to school, 16 of these animals came out of an alleyway and it was the grace of God that nobody was killed. However, if something is not done somebody will be killed in Waterford or somewhere else.

There have been numerous instances of cars running into horses or horses running into cars and thankfully, nobody has been seriously injured up to now. Not so long ago one of these big animals stopped on the road in front of me when I was on my way to my clinic and I could only get it to move by repeatedly sounding the horn. This sort of thing goes on constantly.

There is need for new legislation or regulations because at present the owners only have to pay whatever fees are levied at the pound. If any local authority tried to recover its costs through the courts there would be a problem in identifying the owners of the animals, nobody knows who owns them. A few months ago 31 of these horses were taken from Waterford and put into a pound in Kildare or Dublin but they were all back out 24 hours later. There is no point in just putting them into a pound.

Waterford Corporation has to use long distance contractors because their own staff members were intimidated by the owners of the animals. In the area I refer to there is a good GAA club and, again, the local authority has to spend a considerable amount of money fencing off the premises and depositing mounds of clay. They have had to organise a number of raids in the last few years and I estimate that this is costing them between £20,000 and £25,000 to police this.

There is a proposal in Waterford to provide a new pound for these horses. However, that will be a waste of time because it will be vandalised or the people running it will be intimidated. There is a need for a national pound so that these horses can be brought to one location. The Garda are powerless because of the lack of suitable legislation. Fines should be increased to make it uneconomic to claim back the horses. In addition, some method of registering and identifying these animals should be introduced. If a horse is impounded his ear could be notched so that if the animal is brought in again it will be recognised and confiscated in the case of a second offence.

Something must be done. Although nobody has been killed to date as a result of this problem the situation is extremely serious and somebody will be killed if appropriate measures are not taken.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment (Mr. Browne,

Wexford): I thank Deputy Kenneally for raising this issue. It gives me an opportunity to outline to the House the limit and extent of the responsibilities of the Minister for Justice in relation to wandering horses.

Primary responsibility for the impounding of wandering animals rests with the local authorities who maintain pounds for this purpose. The Garda are also authorised to impound wandering animals and to assist the local authority personnel responsible for this work.

The law on wandering animals was updated by the Animals Act, 1985 which tackled the question in three ways. First, it gave increased powers to the local authorities and Garda to impound animals. Second, it improved the effectiveness of the impounding procedure by giving local authorities power to order the sale, disposal or destruction, where appropriate, of impounded animals. Third, it increased substantially the fines for turning animals loose, allowing them on the public road and rescuing animals from a local authority pound.

The Act also abolished the then immunity of occupiers of land adjoining the public road in relation to damage caused by animals straying from such lands on to the road. As a result, the laws of negligence now apply in such cases. The Act further permits the local authorities and the Garda to impound animals wandering on public roads even where the owner is known. The authorities are also empowered to impound animals trespassing in public parks or other open spaces owned by a local authority or State agency.

I understand that Deputy Kenneally has written to the Minister about this problem in Waterford and I have been told that the Minister will be responding shortly. The Minister has received a detailed report from the Garda authorities about the situation and she is aware that the problem is somewhat compounded by the lack of an animal pound in Waterford city. She understands that this lack of a proper facility has been brought to the attention of the local authority by the Garda on a number of occasions. The Garda have further informed the Minister that on the night of 9 February 1994, 22 horses were removed from the Ballybeg and Farran Park areas of Waterford city by local authority personnel assisted by members of the Garda. The animals in question were taken to a pound in Dublin. The Garda are determined that this problem be tackled effectively and, in this regard, they have received the assurance of Waterford Corporation that similar operations will be undertaken where necessary.