€1,000 to seize every illegal horse

Taxpayers are paying out more than €1,000 every time an illegally held horse is rounded up and detained in Limerick.

Latest budgetary figures from Limerick City & County Council show that €483,000 was spent seizing 413 horses last year. Only 10 of the horses were reclaimed by their owners and the rest were destroyed.

More than €600,000 has been allocated from this year’s council budget to deal with illegally held horses.

Independent city councillor and former mayor, John Gilligan, said hundreds of horses are being kept illegally in the city. He called on gardaí and the Department of Agriculture to find a solution to the problem.

“We’re wasting money. We spend more time talking about horses than we do about people,” he said.

The former mayor said the notion of implementing a horse project would not solve the problem in Limerick.

“We are talking about 500-600 horses. That’s a sop to people out there (and) that is not a solution,” he said.