Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 19 Feb 1997

Vol. 475 No. 2

Written Answers. - Control of Horses Legislation.

Thomas P. Broughan

Ceist:

115 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry when the Control of Horses Act will commence in view of the fact that the situation on Dublin's northside is virtually out of control; and the financial and other resources which will be made available to local authorities under the Act. [4799/97]

Eamon Walsh

Ceist:

125 Mr. E. Walsh asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the stage of the Control of Horses Act, 1996; when it will be fully implemented; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4645/97]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry (Mr. Yates)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 115 and 125 together.

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. I anticipate having both these steps completed within a matter of weeks. As Deputies will be aware, the Act enables the local authorities to make by-laws laying down control measures and declaring all or part of their functional areas to be control areas where horses cannot be kept without a licence. I would hope that local authorities in whose areas the problem exists will lose no time in implementing these provisions once I have made the commencement order and regulations.

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 alloction of funds would have regard to the relative scale of the problem in the various local authority areas.