Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Clearly, there would be some difficulties with vaccinating animals in the wild. Potentially, there are 233,000 hares and 2 million rabbits in Ireland. The Irish Coursing Club, ICC, has been mentioned. Hare coursing is administered by the ICC, which was set up under the Greyhound Industry Act 1958. Statutory responsibility for the Act resides with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Licences are required by the ICC under the terms of the Wildlife Acts on behalf of affiliated clubs in order to facilitate the netting and tagging of hares for closed park meetings. As stated, I issued the licence for the 2019-2020 season to the ICC in late July to allow affiliated clubs to net hares for the purpose of hare coursing over the season.

The disease is density dependent, which means that the higher the density of animals, the higher the incidence of the disease. The virus is extremely resistant and remains viable for up to two months in the environment. It can be passed on by direct contact. Deputy Mattie McGrath mentioned that it can be carried on people's shoes. It can be passed on in faeces and urine. Infected carcasses can harbour infective virus for several months post mortem. The virus can also be transported on soil, shoes and clothing.

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