S5 E1 Where There's a Wall There's A Way

In this episode we chat with Prof Paddy Wall about his recently published report into the scandal involving a horse abattoir in Ireland in 2024.Prof Wall is a vet and medical doctor and has awide-ranging resumé with contributions spanning public health, food safety, governance and education. He was the first Chief Executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and has held senior positions on international food safety bodies including the European Food Safety Authority. He is Professor of Public Health at University College Dublin. He has further qualifications in infectious diseases, business administration and corporate governance. A keen horseman, Paddy has shown and judged young horses, produced riding horses for the Ridden Hunter classes, participated in hunter trials and one-day-event competitions, and ridden in Point-to-Points. He was co-author of the 2010 UCD report on Horse Welfare in Ireland commissioned by World Horse Welfare and was chairman of Horse Sport Ireland from 2013-2016.In 2024 the Irish national broadcaster, RTÉ, screened an investigative documentary which alleged potentiallysignificant animal welfare breaches and fraud at Ireland’s only equine abattoir which was under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). In the wake of this documentary Paddy was asked by DAFM to carry out a review of the issues highlighted in the documentary, particularly around equine identification and traceability. The report was published in March 2025 and is available at this link.The report was accompanied by an ActionPlan from DAFM setting out proposals to implement the recommendations of the Wall report.