A total of 35 wandering horses have been lifted by joint Garda and local authority swoops on city housing estates in the past 12 months.
The news comes after councillors questioned at Monday’s JPC meeting at City Hall whether enough was being done to prosecute owners of stray horses.
Galway City East councillor Declan McDonnell said there were numerous horses wandering around housing estates in the city and asked what was the directive to council staff in relation to lifting stray horses.
Fine Gael councillor Frank Fahy asked how tenants renting council horses were able to keep horses on their property when it was in breach of the tenancy agreement with the council.
Cllr Fahy said; “The dogs in the street know who [the horses] belong to. [It is] A lot of our tenants and it is signed in the [tenancy] agreement than you cannot keep horses so someone [in city council] is not doing their job.
“Are we going to wait until someone gets injured? If someone gets injured what efforts do the gardai do to trace the owner? We seriously need to address this.”
Cllr Terry O’Flaherty concurred with councillors’ statements adding; “You can see houses where there are stables where these horses are kept.”
In response to the councillors’ comments director of services at the Galway City Council Tom Connell said the council “will lift horses where there is a danger to the public” and that a new service provider had been chosen through national framework to carry out this service now.
