THE Department of Agriculture has had a “number of approaches” from parties interested in opening a horse slaughter facility, following the enforced closure of Shannonside Foods earlier this month. But the Department cannot say when such a facility might be opened to cater for the estimated 65 horses a week who need to be humanely destroyed.

During a near four-hour sitting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture this week, senior Department veterinary officer Michael Sheahan faced another intense round of criticism from TDs and senators on the Department’s apparent failure to be aware of serious welfare shortcomings at Ireland’s only equine abattoir in Straffan, prior to RTÉ’s recent shocking report on the plant.

Asked if there were plans to license another horse slaughter facility, Sheahan said: “We’ve had four approaches that I’m aware of, and there might even be a few more, and these would be all from credible people.

“I think we’re all aware if there isn’t a slaughter option – as we see in America – the alternative is that horses get exported and that could be a much worse outcome.”

Senator Paul Daly pressed Sheahan on the urgency to come up with a solution.

“There was skullduggery going on, but there was still the need for 65 horses per week to be humanely and properly and appropriately euthanised,” Daly said.

“That’s now gone two weeks. That’s 130 horses. It’ll be 195 next week, and it’ll be 260 the following week, and so on. And if we’re back in here again, the buck is going to stop with you, Mr Sheahan, so there is an urgency.”

Sheahan replied: “There’d be no lack of urgency on our part, but it may be the case that even the people with genuinely good intentions might need to modify their existing lines. Some of them have slaughter facilities already, but they may need some modifications to be able to deal with horses. The height of rails is a particular difficulty when it comes to slotting horses. So I can’t predict how long it’s going to take, but it won’t be for any lack of urgency on our part.”

Paperwork problems

Senator Daly also had tough questions for the Department relating to statements made during a recent court case in Limerick relating to the seizure of horse carcasses from Shannonside Foods.

Addressing Sheahan, Daly said: “One of your colleagues at the court case in Limerick said the food chain documents relating to those horses were created by Shannonside Foods Limited retrospectively, after the kill. I want that explained to me, because if the paperwork that’s going with the carcasses … is all being done retrospectively there was no inspection process here at all.”

Sheahan responded “I was a bit surprised, a bit like yourself, about the thing about retrospective paperwork. I’m afraid I don’t know what exactly happened. That certainly wasn’t my understanding about what was happening in the plant as regards food chain information. My understanding was that it was the same as in every other plant, that their food chain information came in at the same time as the horses did.”

SENATOR Victor Boyhan has called for an external and independent investigation into the Department of Agriculture’s involvement with Shannonside Foods Ltd, the horse slaughter plant in Straffan, Co Kildare, which was shut down this month.

During this week’s Oireachtas Committee hearing into the matter, senior Department official Michael Sheahan told TDs and senators that the Department’s own investigation division was “taking a lead”, but that An Garda Síochána was also “very significantly involved”. He added that Europol had also taken an interest in matters arising from the RTÉ Investigates report which dealt with horse exports.

Senator Boyhan commented: “There needs to be an independent external investigation into these matters if we are to instill confidence in the public at large who are horrified with what’s going on. It isn’t, quite frankly, good enough to have an internal review. It wouldn’t be tolerated in the prison service or Department of Justice or any other department. So I’m making a clear call for an external and independent review.”