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AN IRISH FARMERS’ group is refuting the Agriculture Minister’s claims that there is “no major welfare problem” in the horse sector – and calling for the slaughter of 18,000 ‘useless’ horses.
The United Farmers Association (UFA) has said today it is “demanding to know” why the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney and the junior Minister Tom Hayes “continue to insist in the face of all public and common knowledge that there is no crisis in the Irish horse industry”.
Meltdown
According to the UFA, the small breeders’ section of the industry “is in total melt down”, with an estimated 25,000 horses “with no future, no monitory value, no market and whose owners cannot afford to keep them”.
Horses in worst case scenarios are been dumped out on waste ground cutaway bogs and waste ground, country wide, left to starve or freeze often in an emaciated miserable state. Animal welfare organisations and facilities are at breaking point.
The UFA described it as “nothing short of outrageous that the Department of Agriculture through its political heads continues to insist that there is no crisis”.
UFA national president Bernie Wall said that the stamping of all horse passports as ‘not fit for human consumption’ is exacerbating and magnifying the horse welfare crisis.
Following meetings with UFA members, the association has estimated that there are around 25,000 “useless” horses in Ireland, whose owners are struggling financially to care for them. Due to the ‘unfit for human consumption’ stamp on their horse passports, they cannot bring the horses to be slaughtered and exported to countries where there is a market for horse meat.
The UFA believes that up to 18,000 of these horses must be slaughtered in order to bring an end to the crisis. Wall said that he believes a great number of these horses would not have been injected with bute, and so would be fit for human consumption.
To determine this, the association suggests that Agriculture Department vets could carry out blood tests “paid for as a once off gesture by the Department”.
“We need to find a solution,” said Wall. “I’m sure the owners are quite distressed to do this for their animals.” Wall said that the estimated 25,000 horses are not from the racing industry but instead owned by small breeders, sports people, hunters and others.
“This is the first time this section of the horse industry has sought and really needs some help,” said the UFA.
Wall is writing to both Coveney and Hayes to ask for a meeting on this issue.
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I cant even get 3G coverage with Vodafone
Cant even get 2G
Why❓…Is the rollout of 4G so predominant in the south/east of the country❗️
O2 need to wake up…. €50 a month and I don’t get 4G? Definitely switching when my contract ends.
Three Ireland initially announced they would be rolling out 4G in August. Still nothing. Their PR tactic on this has been to ignore ignore ignore. Very annoying.
They’ve announced January now – press statement last week.
Three announced it will be end of January now, yes they have handled it really badly, they told me in July it would be end of August
Three are a disgrace, the product , the service, the customer service. They are a shambles. You no longer can use the hotspot feature with three, they also restrict Internet sites that can be viewed with other providers. Back to Vodafone when my contract expires
Since when can’t you use or make a hotspot with 3? I’m getting fast download speed through my phone lately, lately being in the last hour. What sites are blocked? Maybe you just have to provide proof of age for porn sites
Known Three they’ll offer 4G service for 20euro a month but give you a 500mb cap, worst operator in Ireland, worst customer service in the world, absolutely appalling and mentally draining to deal with them!
Nah that’s meteor, john, in March when their 4G offer runs out and they charge €30
Go into play store and download hotspot vpn shield that Will sort out Your blocked sites.
Lashes you can get those sites unblocked just call and you will need to email them proof of your age
I have to say I received the worst customer service I have ever had in my life from three. It’s based in India and they have no idea how to deal with customers here. I was driving my kids to school running late and made the mistake of taking a call. I was ordered to pull over to the side of the road to discuss the two euro I owed them and they got nasty when I told them the colour of sh&te. I had three months of that BS. Then they held my number to ransom when I tried to move. No support in Ireland until you leave and then they beg you. Total rubbish unless you like customer abuse.
Just rang Vodafone and was told my price plan doesnt support it. 5 years of being a bill pay user, average monthly bill is 115 euro ( use my mobile alot for work). Will start shopping around I think…
If your average bill is that and it’s for work might work asking them for a better deal especially if it’s a business account you have. That’s mega bucks to be charged.
Meteor & Emobile 4G is a joke
Don’t know where they are going with 4G – 2G would be a start
Patrick I’ve been using meteor 4g, I have to say its excellent, I got 49 down the other day, but the average has been around 30 down. But I’ll be switching to three 4g when it arrives, ya can’t beat their all you can eat data
Any idea of the upload speed with 4g?
Where I am now is ok, 27.54 down, 16.63 up with meteor
Deadly. Nice 1. Cheers Perthy
Ha!, I doubt you’ll get all you can eat data when they roll out their 4G!
How many minutes to exceed your monthly download allowance?
It’s hardly across Ireland….
It is, it goes from one side to the other
Cool. If it is as good as their current 3G service, many people in the country will continue to happily experience inability to make calls or ever hear the other person on the line because one bar on the phone is the limit of happiness for some of us the unfortunate who were foolish enough to make a contract with them.
Not available on Pay as you Go.
If it wasn’t for O2 3G coverage we would have only Eircom at less than 1 Gb download speed.
4G will outrun fibre optic packages in the end.
The cost of cabling fibre optic to all areas countrywide is just not feasible.
Its not worth getting. The caps they put on it are shocking. One hour at full whack will use all your minths allowance.
Needs to be unlimited and reasonable price. Anyone who gets it right now is small bit soft in the head
€55 a month on a 2 year contract….. bargain!
Vodafone 4G is not available in Ireland
Did you even read the article? If not Ireland, then what country does the map show?
4G is one thing. .what about upping usage limits..With an add on I pay nearly 80e a month and then get charged 0.03cent a mb when you go over on it . complete rip off .Vodafone have scandalous customer service and once i am out of contract I will cancel
Vodafone are a ripoff
All the networks here are seriously overpriced. Just look at any ad on British TV to compare….
Any chance of 2 G where I live?
Vodafone cannot even provide an adequate service as it is (any Samsung S3 users will know what I mean). Their customer support is as useful as a hole in the head!
Vodafone my arse. After numerous phone calls and shop visits I found out you have to be on a min €55 tariff. This is a disgrace of the highest order. Robbing current customers of a service that is live. Extortion and milking every penny out of people. Id go to a different provider but they are all robbing gits. I may just go back to using pay phones!
They are a joke, do well to get 3G between Portlaois and limerick, no coverage down around fermoy and do well even to get anything at all between Galway and Sligo. Vodafone you are a joke of a provider
You are all so last year – 5g is the one to get
Everyone and their mother is going to switch to three when they roll out unlimited 4g data for €20 a month.
It clogs up the network slowing down 4g speeds for everyone. That’s exactly what happened with 3g in three.
small print – service not included in republic of ireland
I laugh. Carriers charge more for 4G but it’s technically cheaper to operate if you do the research.
This might sound silly but how do you know if you have 4g. My phone is 4g ready and I’m with eMobile. But I only see 3G coming up if I’m out if the wifi area. I don’t want to be using 4g and building up a big bill without realising it .
U have to have a 4g plan and a USIM to use 4g, itll be in the network mode under LTE and ull only be connected when u hav a 4 beside the signal bar up the top of ur screen
Another “little” item that Vodafone are keeping quiet about is that their 4G service does not run on the iPhone 5 – they claim the iPhone 5 is not 4G compatible – which is rubbish, they have clearly decided not to support it to force people up upgrade to get the service!!!
Nope Apple didn’t include European LTE bands on 5 only the 5s.
Meteor are offering 4g on their iPhone 5s in ireland.
“…majority of them located south of the country,” It is no wonder there are so many comments here about its unavailability – I guess most Journal readers are landlubbers.
When 4G becomes the norm across all networks competition will drive down prices as with what happened when 3G launched.
I’m a Vodafone customer because the the tariffs available suit me and the quality of their network is probably the best but their customer care has gone to hell since they outsourced it. When they had their own call centres in Dublin and Dundalk the policy seemed to be keep the customer happy to retain their loyalty. Since they outsourced it they don’t give a crap.
When is 3 going to offer 4G? Anyone know?
Promised January but probably never
Avoid three like the plague. They don’t even own a computer. They are a total joke, where the customer is the punch line. They are the worst company I have ever dealt with. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
They are but have delayed it until Jan. With their buying of the Irish 02 network due to complete around same time they are probably waiting to amalgamate the 2 networks,
Every time the public gets used to a new technology they throw another one at us and make the old one out of fashion so we buy the nee one and spend more cash. .
Ah not sure what UR all moaning about iv never had issue with Vodafone best network of them all. Yes not the cheapest but u get wat u pay for. Iv faster internet on my fone than wi fi in house and got text advising 4g b on my I fone 5 in 2 days
Too much texting eh ANN? Spelling is a lost art I guess
They don’t know how to provide current service and how to care the customer.
In my experience Vodafone is worst service provider ever I seen
My iPhone today got carrier settings update
cellular settings shows enable 4G
I’m on the Red Plan
But were I live and travel to is not 4G enabled yet
Dublin City don’t be there much
Test Reports say download speed is 30mb and upload is 8mb in Dublin
With Vodafone
But as more users start using 4G you can expect speeds will drop
Usage Caps will most likely have to be increased
Just checked the prices. Hey floor, can I have my jaw back?
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