Animal Welfare Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-19 ============================================================ Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I want to raise the persistent neglect of horses in urban areas, in particular in Dublin. Earlier this month, we saw the tragic death of Anne, a pregnant horse who collapsed on the N4 near Ballyfermot following an illegal sulky race on Dollymount Strand. Anne was brutally beaten by her owners after collapsing from exhaustion, and abandoned and left to die on the side of the road. The images were horrific. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. The abuse of horses is a regular occurrence on our streets. Owners say they love their horses, but when we see the conditions they are living in we have to wonder whether that is true. We hear urban horse owners say they love their horses, but there does not seem to be much evidence of that. Other urban horse owners know who the perpetrators of the treatment and death of Anne in Ballyfermot are, but have not made that known to the Garda. They talk about urban horses, but there is no action or evidence they are committed to them. Young children use small ponies like bicycles and playgrounds and show zero respect for them. People ride sulkies down the wrong side of the road during rush hour traffic, narrowly avoiding buses and cars and terrifying people around them. Horses are left tied to poles during the height of the summer with no water, and many have died from dehydration and neglect. There are illegal and unregulated stables across the city, with horses crowded into completely inadequate shelters in abandoned buildings or empty lots, exposed to the elements and often living in their own filth. It is absolutely disgraceful how horses are being treated by their owners and supposed guardians. The State has completely failed to stand up for their welfare. The Garda has constantly said it does not have the resources to address these issues and gardaí can only stand idly by as animal cruelty takes place on a massive scale. We desperately need Garda units in each division, dedicated to ending animal cruelty and abuse so that incidents such as what happened to Anne and her foal are taken seriously and investigated properly. We also need new legislation and better enforcement around sulky racing and horse carriages on public roads, banning them where it is dangerous. It is astounding to me that the current law governing the topic is the Dublin Carriage Act 1853. The effort to draw up new legislation to deal with this area was suspended as a response to Covid and has never been resumed. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have a shameful legacy when it comes to animal welfare and the complete neglect of the welfare of horses is just one example of this. We urgently need an overhaul of our legislation on animal welfare and safety. I urge the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and his colleagues in the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration and Department of Transport to finally take this issue off the back burner and begin working towards ending the systemic abuse of animals in Ireland. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-19/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-19