Dogs and Brexit

Info from dog owners, please.
My sister is travelling from Wales to the RoI by ferry for a wedding in April. What, if any, is the arrangement for dogs at present, do they have to go through the same procedure as is required when been taken to mainland Europe. She has never travelled with a dog before and neither have we, so advice would be much appreciated from those who have. Assuming we won't be all reinventing life post a hard Brexit.

there is a list on Irish Ferries helpful questions site, seems you need a pet passport, a microchipped dog to match,and a certificate for rabies injection from a vet not less than 21 days previous, These rules will be in place until the Britexit is fully in place or how long is a piece of string.

That’s what I did for years, but all insurance companies that I’ve looked at now have a condition in ‘overseas cover’ that the pet must be in compliance with the pet passport scheme. Just be careful with that.

Taken from Citezensinformation.ie regarding pets coming into R.O.I from non-EU Countries:

Pets from outside the EU

If you want to import a cat, dog or ferret into Ireland from a country outside the EU there are 2 categories of these countries: qualifying lower-risk countries and non-qualifying high-risk countries. You can check if your country of origin is on this list of qualifying lower-risk countries. If it is not on this list then your country of origin is a non-qualifying high-risk country.

Pets from qualifying non-EU countries

A cat, dog or ferret from a qualifying lower-risk non-EU country must undergo the following in this order:
•Be identified by a microchip
•Be vaccinated for rabies subsequently
•Have a veterinary health certificate in the form of Annex IV to Commission Implementing Decision 577/2013 to certify that it is currently immunised against rabies and dogs must be treated against tapeworm between24 and 120 hours before arriving in Ireland. Treatment for ticks is not compulsory but it is advisable to get it at the same time as the tapeworm treatment.

So unless there is a new agreement in place for the end of march, you would need to vaccinate your dog to cross the border into the south. Technically speaking that is. I can't imagine that being enforced.

And the site also states that:

If you are travelling with your pet (including a recognised guide dog) directly to Ireland from a country not listed in Table 1 below, you must also notify DAFM of your pet’s arrival at least 24 hours before you arrive in Ireland:

Table 1

An EU member state, Monaco
Andorra, Norway
Gibraltar, San Marino
Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Switzerland
Iceland, Vatican City State
Liechtenstein

So technically you would need to notify the Dept. of Agriculture & Food of your intention to travel with your pet 24 hours in advance when coming down south.

What a mess!

We've just gone with a new pet insurance company and I specifically asked the question regarding travel from NI to ROI now and after Brexit. They class travel from NI to ROI as a European, overseas, trip and will only cover our dog if we have all the pet passport stuff in order. As for after Brexit...they had no clue and just guessed that nothing may change.

And what was their reason, nothing has changed since yesterday (or last year).