Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 January 2026
485. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of horses from the horse racing industry sent to slaughter in 2025 in Ireland and abroad; and the locations of the slaughterhouses. [3174/26]
View answerThere has been no equine slaughter facility in Ireland since the closure of the previous facility in 2024. Facilitating the establishment of a new equine slaughter facility is an action under the recommendations of the Wall Report to improve equine welfare and traceability. Three notifications of intent have been submitted to operate as an equine slaughter premises, one of which has passed this initial stage. The next stage is the submission of a formal application and my Department awaits this.
Six hundred and eighty four horses were exported for slaughter to EU Member States in 2025, 111 to Belgium and 573 to France. The EU export certification system, TRACES, does not distinguish between horses exported to the UK for slaughter or for other reasons. However, quarterly updates received from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in the UK recorded 666 Irish horses slaughtered there up to the end of September. It is not possible to say what proportion of these horses were from the racing industry as this is not a data set captured at certification or slaughter.
