Frustrations have been vented following delays of up to up to six months for passports from Horse Sport Ireland (HSI).

As I write this, I myself have a young sports horse who was vetted and subsequently sold to the UK, but with no passport after a number of months, she remains in my yard unable to travel without it: it’s certainly a tricky one to try to explain to a client in England waiting for their new horse.

Shedding some light on the issue, HSI have recently told Irish Country Living that the problem was due to their laboratories being compromised due to testing facilities and equipment being prioritised during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On top of that and condensing the problem, HSI also revealed that recent EU legislative change with the commencement of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/963, also had an adverse delay on the issuing of passports resulting in HSI being unable to legally print or issue the old format passport.

Thanks to huge efforts from HSI staff and with assistance from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), HSI were able to confirm last week that a new passport format has been agreed and printing has resumed. Passports should be arriving in the post to horse owners soon.