Pet passports for Southern Ireland

Don't know if this subject has already been covered so please excuse if its a repeat for before.

Just been talking to my local vet and apparently from the beginning of April this year a pet passport is required for Southern Ireland if travelling from the UK. That means a rabies jab etc exactly the same as going to the continent.
As Southern Ireland is a republic and part of the EEC this has now become LAW. It doesn't apply to Northern Ireland.

Therefore your pet has also have to be vet checked before comming back to the UK with all the rules and regulations applying same as on the continent.

Yes I know its stupid as Southern Ireland doesn't have Rabies but in the eyes of the EEC it has to comply.

Tumbleweed

Not sure how that will work given no border control between north and south. so you can travel between n.ireland and the uk. Found this:-

What you need to do if you are entering the UK from the Republic of Ireland


•Under the EU pet movement system, all pet dogs, cats and ferrets moving between EU Member States must meet the same animal health rules. From 1January 2012 the requirement is that all pets travelling from the Republic of Ireland to the UK should be microchipped, vaccinated against rabies and accompanied by a pet passport

•As both the Republic of Ireland and the UK have had no indigenous rabies for many decades, compliance checks on pets travelling between the two countries will not be applied. Pet owners travelling with their pets should therefore not experience any change on the ground from the 1 January.

I've just seen that on the Defra website Dolce. I hope it proves to be the case.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pet...ts/pet-owners/


Is it different then if travelling to the Republic from the UK?

I've e-mailed Stena (ferry company) to see what they are doing.

It says here except-UK

http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/pets/t...sportexceptuk/

I thought you already had to have a pet passport for your dog to travel to southern ireland. That's what we were told when we lived in Ireland anyway.

We took Loki to Southern Ireland by ferry last year and didn't need anything. I checked with Stena beforehand.

That's exactly what I was going to post. But reading the link I am confused now. It doesn't EXPLAIN does it? Just says 'except UK'.

I'm miffed that the EU rules governing pet/passport are all hunky dory from here in Cyprus UNLESS you are going to the UK when extra rules apply! For starters you have to use an approved pet transport company from Jan this year. Something I never wanted to do because your pet is away from you longer and they get them to the airport WAY early etc.

I'm understanding this better now - the bit about there being no history of rabies in RoI or UK blah blah is in relation to NOTHING CHANGING from 1st Jan this year for travel from RoI to UK (can't find it the other way round yet).

So, presumably whatever applied BEFORE 1st Jan still applies.

Me again! This seems to sum it up. Seems if your pet is accepted into UK it will be accepted into RoI with no problem.

So if it is in UK to start with - that's OK

I am actually moving to Ireland in a months time, and after going over all the sites and getting really confused we just called up the department of agriculture of Ireland to find out and they said even though it is the law they are not checking any pets coming from the UK so there is no need to get a rabies shot to only go there, but if you are planning to return to the UK then you do need it as the UK are checking pets.