The Irish Cob Studbook

The Irish Cob Studbook

The first Irish Cob Studbook (studbook of origin of the breed / aka ‘mother’ Irish Cob Studbook)—henceforth the Irish Cob Studbook—was established in Ireland in 1998 by The Irish Cob Society. At no time did the Irish Cob Society transfer ownership of The Irish Cob Studbook to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (the Minister) or to his Department (the Department). The Irish Cob Studbook, which the Department took from the Irish Cob Society and gave to Horse Sport Ireland, is therefore the property of the Irish Cob Society.

Establishment of the Irish Cob Studbook  

In early June 1996, I, Evelyn Flynn (formerly Evelyn Murphy), made a telephone call to the Department of Agriculture official Mr Brian Walsh proposing to establish the first studbook for the feathered cob created in Ireland by Irish Travellers. I explained to Mr Walsh that because Irish Travellers had not given a name to the breed—except ‘the piebald’ (because they were predominantly black and white)—that I would name the studbook the Irish Cob Studbook (thereby naming the breed for the first time).

I explained to Mr Walsh that I considered it important to have the Irish Cob Studbook officially recognised so that identification documents (passports) could be issued in respect of the animals registered in the studbook. I therefore proposed to establish a body (organisation or association) and to apply to the Department for registration (of that body) as Keeper of the Irish Cob Studbook—therefore as an EU recognised studbook in respect of which my proposed body would be authorised to issue identification documents (passports).

Mr Walsh invited me to send my proposals in writing to him (the Department), and to assist me he told me that he would send me the relevant EU (then EEC) studbook and identification legislation (Decision 92/353/EEC & Decision 93/623/EEC which were adopted pursuant to Article 4 of Directive 90/427/EEC) and the relevant national studbook and identification legislation (S.I. 305/1993) which transposed the EU studbook and identification legislation into Irish Law. 

On 28th June 1996 I put my proposals in writing to Mr Walsh (the Department), and having read my proposal, Mr Walsh issued a letter to me on 18 July 1996 in which the Department officially recognised the Irish Cob Studbook (which proposed body would establish), and acknowledged my proposal to found (establish) a body that would apply to the Department for registration as Keeper of the Irish Cob Studbook.

Although I authored the Irish Cob Breed Standard required to establish the breed's first studbook, I gave my permission to The Irish Cob Society (the body I founded) to use the Irish Cob Breed Standard to establish the Irish Cob Studbook.

On 16 July 1998 the Department issued a letter to me informing me that the Irish Cob Society was approved ‘for the purpose of maintaining the Irish Cob Studbook’. Although someone not au fait with the EU and national studbook and identification legislation could incorrectly (but understandably) interpret this letter to mean that the Irish Cob Society was ‘approved to maintain the Irish Cob Studbook’, the legal meaning of this letter is that the Irish Cob Society was approved (in accordance with Article 2(1) of Decision 92/353/EEC as transposed in section 3 of S.I. 305/1993) for the purpose of maintaining the Irish Cob Studbook (established by the Irish Cob Society) as an EU recognised studbook in respect of which the Irish Cob Society was therefore authorised to issue the identification document (passport) for registered equidae established in Decision 93/623/EEC as transposed in regulation 7 of S.I. 305/1993. 

Because the Irish Cob Studbook which was established (and is therefore owned) by the Irish Cob Society is the first studbook for the breed, on 16 July 1998, the Department also notified the European Commission that the Irish Cob Society was regarded as the body (organisation or association) which maintained the studbook of origin of the breed—as referred to in Article 2(2)2nd indent of Decision 92/353/EEC.

Because the Irish Cob Society was both establishing and maintaining the Irish Cob Studbook, the Department directed me towards applying to the Irish Horse Board for OPARDF funding available for Studbook Establishment and Maintenance. On 31 August 1998, I therefore issued a letter to the Department thanking them for their letter of 16 July 1998—regarding the granting of approval to the Irish Cob Society for the establishment and maintenance of the Irish Cob Studbook, and also advising the Department that the Irish Cob Society had applied to the Irish Horse Board for OPARDF funding for Studbook Establishment and Maintenance and requested the Department to urge the Irish Horse Board to deal with our application without delay.

The Department was 100% aware in 1998 that the Irish Cob Society established (and therefore owns) the Irish Cob Studbook, and that the approval granted to the Irish Cob Society on 16 July 1998 in accordance with Article 2(1) of Decision 93/623/EEC as transposed in section 3 of S.I. 305/1993 ‘for the purpose of maintaining the Irish Cob Studbook’ was therefore to issue the identification document (passport) for registered equidae referred to in section 7 of S.I. 305/1993 as established in Decision 93/623/EEC.

Because the Irish Cob Society established and maintained its own studbook (the Irish Cob Studbook), the Irish Cob Society is legally entitled to maintain its Irish Cob Studbook, without having to seek approval from the Department to do so. The purpose for which the Irish Cob Society (or any other organisation or association) sought approval to be granted in accordance with Article 2(1) of Decision 93/623/EEC is therefore to be authorised to issue identification documents (passports).

On 23 July 2012, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (the Department) notified the Irish Cob Society of the Minister’s intention to revoke what was in fact a non-existent (false) approval of the Irish Cob Society.

On 30 November 2012, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (the Department) notified the Irish Cob Society of the Minister’s decision to revoke what was in fact a non-existent (false) approval of the Irish Cob Society.

The Department letters of 23 July 2012 and 30 November 2012 should never have been issued, because they were issued in respect of an application ‘for approval to maintain the Irish Cob Studbook’ which the Department required the Irish Cob Society to submit, but which did not apply to the Irish Cob Society, because the Irish Cob Society established (and therefore owns) the Irish Cob Studbook, and the Irish Cob Society is legally entitled to maintain the Irish Cob Studbook, even without approval to issue identification documents (passports). The Department letters of 23 July 2012 and 30 November 2012 therefore related to an inappropriate application for a non-existent (false) approval of the Irish Cob Society ‘to maintain the Irish Cob Studbook’ (amongst others).

The facts are:

1. Because the Irish Cob Society established (and therefore owns) the Irish Cob Studbook, the Irish Cob Society is therefore legally entitled to maintain its Irish Cob Studbook without having to submit an application to the Department seeking approval to maintain the Irish Cob Studbook—i.e. without having to get ‘permission’ from the Department. Although the Department should not have required the Irish Cob Society to submit an application for approval to maintain its own studbook, the Department left the Irish Cob Society with no option but to do so because the Department had wrongly notified the Irish Cob Society that its approval was due to expire. However, even though the Irish Cob Society did what it was told and submitted an inappropriate application ‘for approval to maintain its Irish Cob Studbook’, the Irish Cob Society did not transfer ownership of its Irish Cob Studbook to the Department, or to the Minister, or to any other party.
2. Unlike an appropriate application for ‘approval to maintain a studbook’—and therefore to maintain a Minister-owned (official department established) studbook (which the Department has a right to refuse, or to approve an approval expiry basis), where an organisation or association (such as the Irish Cob Society) establishes their own studbook (and is therefore legally entitled to maintain their studbook), the Department was obliged to approve the organisation or association (as required in Article (2)(1) of Decision Decision 92/353/EEC) provided that the organisation or associationit met the conditions laid down in the Annex to Decision 92/353/EEC, and the Department could therefore not withdraw that approval unless the organisation or association no longer met the conditions laid down in the Annex to Decision 92/353/EEC (as laid down in Article 3 of Decision 92/353/EEC). Because the approval granted to the organisation or association in accordance with Article 2(1) of Decision 92/353/EEC could not expire, the obligation of the Department under Article 3 of Decision 92/353/EEC was to oversee the approved organisation or association regarding their continued compliance with the conditions laid down in the Annex to Decision 92/353/EEC by means of agreed inspection dates.
3. Although the Irish Cob Society established the Irish Cob Studbook in 1998 and was therefore approved in 1998 in accordance with Article 2(1) of Decision 92/353/EEC to maintain its Irish Cob Studbook as an EU recognised studbook in respect of which the Irish Cob Society was therefore authorised to issue identification document (passport) established in Decision 93/623/EEC and subsequently as amended in Decision 2000/68/EEC, from 1 July 2009, the Irish Cob Society remained approved in accordance with Article 2(1) of Decision 92/353/EEC to maintain its Irish Cob Studbook as an EU recognised studbook in respect of which the Irish Cob Society was therefore authorised to issue identification documents (passports) as the organisation or association officially approved or recognised by the Member State referred to in Article 4(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) 504/2008 (approval was not ‘to maintain a studbook’).
4. Because the Department did not find (nor therefore could not provide evidence) that the Irish Cob Society no longer met the conditions laid down in the Annex to Decision 92/353/EEC, the Department could not withdraw the existing (true) approval of the Irish Cob Society under Article 3 of Decision 92/353/EEC. As a result, from the time the Department issued the letter of 30 November 2012 notifying the Irish Cob Society of the Minister's decision to refuse the Irish Cob Society's inappropriate application for approval to maintain its own studbook, the Irish Cob Society remained approved in accordance with Article 2(1) of Decision 92/353/EEC to maintain its Irish Cob Studbook as EU recognised studbook in respect of which the Irish Cob Society was therefore authorised to issue passports as the organisation or association officially approved or recognised by the Member State provided for in Article 4(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) 504/2008.
5. It is therefore because section 4(1)(b) of S.I. 357/2011 (framed by the Department) failed to transpose Decision 92/353/EEC and therefore failed to provide for the right of organisations and associations (including the Irish Cob Society) which established studbooks to ownership of their studbooks (by denying them of their right to maintain their studbooks), and therefore only provided for a person applying for ‘approval to maintain a studbook’ —and therefore to maintain a Minister-owned (official department established) studbook as an official agency—that the Department made it appear (including to a High Court judge in 2013) that the Department could refuse the application submitted by the Irish Cob Society ‘to maintain the Irish Cob Studbook’ (which the Irish Cob Society should not have had to submit) and then take the Irish Cob Studbook from the Irish Cob Society and give it to Horse Sport Ireland, and then offer for public tender as a public studbook service.
6. The Department gave two unreasonable and unfair grounds (a) & (b) for refusing their non-existent (false) approval of the Irish Cob Society ‘to maintain the Irish Cob Studbook’ READ MORE
7. The Irish Cob Society continued to be protected from 2016, because when Decision 92/353/EEC was replaced by Regulation (EU) 2016/1012, the protection provided by Decision 92/353/EEC to organisations and associations (such as the Irish Cob Society) which established and maintained their own studbooks continued under Regulation (EU) 2016/1012. What this means is that from 2016, the Irish Cob Society has been legally entitled to apply to the Department for recognition as a breed society for the purpose of having the Irish Cob Society's Irish Breeding Programme (called the Irish Cob Society's Irish Cob Studbook Principles in Decision 92/353/EEC) approved, so that the Irish Cob Society would be authorised to issue the identification document (passport) as ‘the organisation or association officially approved or recognised in accordance with Article 2(1) of Decision 92/353/EEC’ referred to in Article 5(1)(a) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/262 or subsequently as an issuing body provided for in Article 4 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/963.
   
   NOTE: The reason the Irish Cob Society could not apply to the Department from 2016 for recognition as a breed society for the purpose of having the Irish Cob Society's Irish Cob Breeding Programme approved—so that the Irish Cob Society would be authorised to issue the identification document (passport) as ‘the organisation or association officially approved or recognised in accordance with Article 2(1) of Decision 92/353/EEC’ referred to in Article 5(1)(a) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/262 or subsequently an an issuing body provided for in Article 4 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/963—is because after the Department took the Irish Cob Studbook and therefore the Irish Cob Society's Irish Cob Breeding Programme (called the Irish Cob Society's Studbook Pronciples in Decision 92/353/EEC), the Department took the Irish Cob Society name off the top of the Irish Cob Society's Irish Cob Breeding Programme (which is based on the Irish Cob Breed Standard I, Evelyn Flynn, authored and which I gave permission to the Irish Cob Society to use to establish the Irish Cob Studbook in 1998) and replaced the Irish Cob Society name with the Horse Sport Ireland name, and therefore without my permission or the permission of the irish Cob Society, and therefore without ownership of the Irish Cob Studbook or therefore of the Irish Cob Society's Irish Cob Breeding Programme was having been transferred by me and the Irish Cob Society, or by a court, to the Department, or to the Minister, or to Horse Sport Ireland.
8. The Minister-owned (official department established) studbooks are the Irish Draught Horse Studbook, the Irish Sport Horse Studbook and the Irish Sport Pony Studbook. All other equine studbooks in Ireland (including the Connemara Pony Studbook, the Irish Piebald and Skewbald Studbook and the Irish Cob Studbook) are owned by the organisations or associations which established them.

THEFT

It is apparent that the Department committed an offence under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001 when they took the Irish Cob Studbook from the Irish Cob Society in 2012, and that they did not tell the truth in the High Court in 2013 about the ownership of the Irish Cob Studbook.

REGULATORY FAILURES

The obvious question is ‘why did the Department not revoke their non-existent (false) approval from any other organisation or association which established their own studbook?’. The answer to this is because I, Evelyn Flynn, the author (creator) of the Irish Cob Breed Standard which I permitted The Irish Cob Society (which I founded) to use to establish the Irish Cob Studbook in 1998—challenged the Department (the ‘competent authority’ responsible for transposing Regulation (EC) 504/2008 into Irish Law) for their failure to correctly and safely transpose Regulation (EC) 504/2008 into Irish Law (national regulations) by 1 July 2009. READ MORE

Sport Horse Ireland

In 2018, following an article published in The Irish Field exposing the Horse Sport Ireland practice of falsifying their own passports by sticking labels in their passports, changing the food chain status of equines from excluded from the food chain to included in the food chain, Mr Michael Collins TD raised a Parliamentary Question concerning this irregular Horse Sport Ireland practice which compromised food safety. However, the Department ‘turned a blind eye' and instead ‘rewarded’ Horse Sport Ireland by awarding them the public studbooks services contract to operate the Minister-owned (official department established) studbooks—i.e. the Irish Sport Horse Studbook, the Irish Draught Horse Studbook and the Irish Sport Pony Studbook. However, two of the studbooks included in the public studbooks services contract awarded to Horse Sport Ireland are not Minister-owned (official department established) studbooks—i.e. the Irish Cob Studbook and the Irish Cob Part Bred Studbook, because they were established by the Irish Cob Society, and are therefore owned by the Irish Cob Society, and are therefore private studbook services. Where is the justice in this?

In 2026, Mr Joe Flaherty’s TD exposed Horse Sport Ireland's lack of governance, and also showed his concern regarding the millions of Department funding given to Horse Sport Ireland as ‘the governing body for equestrian sports in Ireland’, who also tendered for public service contracts—including the public studbooks services contract, which included the two Irish Cob Society-owned studbooks.  However, the Department continues to ‘turn a blind eye’ to the behaviours of Horse Sport Ireland, and continues to allow them to maintain (keep) the Minister's studbooks and the Irish Cob Society's studbooks and issue identification documents (passports). Where is the justice in this?