John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The proposed amendments would have the effect of creating separate regulatory regimes for dog breeding establishments, one for greyhounds and a second for other breeds. It is as simple as that.

The Bill seeks to put the protection and welfare of all dogs in our breeding establishments at its core. It is the intention to ensure that regulation will improve the reputation of the Irish dog breeding industry as a whole, including greyhound breeding. This will benefit the industry in the longer term. It is unclear how the Bill as proposed would prove excessively burdensome to greyhound breeders in terms of fees and welfare standards given that they should already operate to a high voluntary standard. I do not wish to add further complexity to the new regulatory regime. A number of contributors on Second Stage made the point that good legislation is that which is not overburdened by exemptions. I would create difficulties if I introduced too many exemptions and I do not intend to set down an unfortunate precedent in legislation by making exemptions for particular breeds.

The working group's recommendations on microchipping were made at a time when we did not have the UK report to hand but we now have clear evidence that microchipping does not affect performance.