I propose to take Questions Nos. 136 and 138 together.
There are no definitive statistics on the total number of horses in the country for the years in question.
The central equine database , which was introduced by my Department in 2013 , incorporates all relevant identification information recorded on the individual databases of approved equine Passport Issuing Organisations (PIO) operating in Ireland, as compiled during the course of the equine identification and passport issuing process. The central database was retrospectively populated with relevant equine identification data dating back to 1 January 1980 and current updates commenced on 1 May 2013.
A study undertaken by my Department and completed in 2012 indicated that there were approximately 200,000 horses in the country in 2010. It is estimated that this number has declined significantly since then due to a sharp decrease in the number of foals born and an increase in the number of horses slaughtered: the number of foals born in 2013 was 32% lower than the number recorded in 2008 and slaughtering levels in 2011 and 2012 averaged over 20,000 head per annum compared with 2,000 in 2008.