INDEPENDENT councillor Frankie Daly has called for leadership from the local authority on the issue of stray horses in the city, and predicts that someone will be killed if something isn’t done soon.
More than €200,000 a year is spent by Limerick City and County Council on the control of horses, and councillors are of the view that the current system is not working.
At last Thursday’s annual budget meeting, City North representative Frankie Daly described the current situation as “deplorable” and urged the Council to treat the control of horses in Limerick as an emergency situation.
“I was up at the soccer pitch in Glasgow Park recently and there were three or four stray horses. It was like something out of ‘Into the West’. It’s a farce.
“Someone is going to die here. Is that what it needs? If we don’t do something, someone is going to die. We need to clean up our act, it is a disaster,” Cllr Daly declared.
Independent councillor John Gilligan said he was very disappointed to learn that a local firm was unsuccessful in their bid for the contract to seize and impound stray horses.
“The Limerick company could be there to remove a stray horse in 20-minutes. Instead we are waiting for four hours for them to come up from Cork. At that stage the horse has already wandered off to another estate,” Cllr Gilligan pointed out.
He also revealed that a family in St Mary’s Park had a lucky escape recently when a stray horse jumped through the windscreen of their car.
“We could have been burying four people. We have to do something,” he said.
Fianna Fail councillor Kieran O’Hanlon took the view that the will isn’t there to address the problem and felt there should be “zero tolerance” for the owners of these animals.
“I don’t care if you are from an ethnic minority, involved in criminal activity, or just people who love horses,” he said.
Party colleague Eddie Ryan said that as a livestock issue, the buck stops with the Department of Agriculture.
“They are the one’s at fault. They are not doing their job,” The Cappamore-Kilmallock representative insisted.
Fine Gael councillor for Adare-Rathkeale Municipal District Adam Teskey maintained the issue is one that affects the county as much as the city.
“I live along the N21 where sulkies are regularly driven along the hard shoulder. Janey Mac, we got to get this this sorted, it is not right. There could be a major calamity and we’d be looking at tombstones and funerals,” he warned.
Newcastle West representative Liam Galvin (FG) told the council executive that the €200,000 spent every year on the control of horses was a “waste of money”.
“It’s shameful. We could do a hell of a lot with that money. The people who own these horses don’t care about your car or your children. The problem is getting bigger,” Cllr Galvin claimed.
Independent councillor Lisa Marie Sheehy called for a special meeting on the issue and suggested Agriculture Minister Michael Creed be invited to attend.
“It is not the horse’s fault, it is the owner’s. This has been going on for way too long. We need to seriously look at this.”
