Vol. 475 No. 1
272 Mr. E. Byrne asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry whether commencement orders are needed to put the Control of Horses Act into effect; if so, the number of orders which are required; whether local authorities can begin the process of horse licensing under the Act; the level of funding available to local authorities to put the Act into effect; when such funding can be accessed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4450/97]
I propose to make a single commencement order to bring the entire Control of Horses Act, 1996 into operation, following which I will make regulations which will enable the local authorities to give effect to the licensing provisions of this legislation. To fund the implementation of the Act at local authority level, I have made provision for the sum of £2 million in my Department's Estimates for 1997 which will be made available to the local authorities. The basis of allocation of this funding is being considered and decisions will be made in due course but it would be reasonable to expect that the allocation of funds would have regard to the relative scale of the problem in the various local authority areas.
