It was reported last week that the Department of Agriculture has not yet received any formal applications from potential operators of a new horse slaughtering facility.

The only abattoir suitable for horses was closed by the Department in the middle of June following an RTÉ Investigates programme which appeared to expose very serious animal welfare concerns.

This prompted a Garda-led investigation and the case could take months if not years to conclude. In the meantime, there is no abattoir in the country that can take unwanted horses. Is this a problem?

Well, the horse abattoir in Straffan, Co Kildare was processing 2,000 horses per annum but it seems as if there wasn’t much money in that for the operators.

The plant was only opened one day a week and a few years ago another horse abattoir in Kilkenny shut its doors due to economic unviability.

So it does seem as if the equine sector is going to have to come up with an alternative. If no action is taken it’s certain that private individuals will offer a service to take horses to Britain or continental Europe for slaughter.

Nobody (except those operators) thinks this is a good idea.

Plenty of civilised countries have already introduced laws against the live export of animals for slaughter or are planning to do so.

I’ve had lot of conversations with industry stakeholders and received plenty of correspondence from the public on what should happen next.

The most popular solution is that the Department of Agriculture should establish a free-of-charge service which can be engaged by horse owners who need to dispose of an animal.

At the moment, horse owners in this situation have two options: arrange to have the horse exported for slaughter (and pocket a few hundred euro) or call their vet to put the horse down at home and then pay a local knackery or hunt to take away the carcass. That option will cost in the region of €500.

Of course, if you are of sufficient means that you can buy and keep a decent racehorse or broodmare or sports horse, then paying the €500 for a ‘proper’ end-of-life process for that horse should not be an issue. Others might genuinely struggle to pay it.

Realistically, all the Department and the various equine industry stakeholders can do is to put in place a free ‘horse euthanasia’ service so that there is no excuse for horse owners to try and squeeze the last few euro out of a horse who has reached the end of its days or cannot pay its way.

So I hope someone in the Department is going to take a lead on this and get it started. What would it cost to have 2,000 horses put down humanely each year?

Ireland has an €8.6 billion budget surplus but even if this service had to be paid for through an increased horse registration charge, let’s make it happen.

Anything less would be a real shame, will have welfare implications and will do little to help the reputation of the equine industry.