Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 16:

In page 13, subsection (1)(a), line 35, before "do," where it firstly occurs to insert "intentionally".

Amendments Nos. 22 and 23 are alternatives and look very similar to me, so we will go with the Minister's better wording. I appreciate the Minister has taken it on board. In amendment No. 16 we suggest the word "intentionally" be included. Acceptance of amendments Nos. 16 and 17 would mean section 12(1)(a) would read "do, or fail to do intentionally, anything or cause or permit anything to be done to an animal that causes unnecessary suffering to, or endanger the health or welfare of, an animal, or".

With regard to amendment No. 17, there could be an argument about what injury and disfigurement mean. Is dehorning disfigurement? Tá adharca fada ar na buaibh thar lear. However, there are no adharca ar na buaibh any more. Presumably injury or disfigurement would cause unnecessary suffering, so it seems to be an over-elaboration and might lead to an unnecessary debate. Surely the entire section deals with unnecessary suffering. Somebody could argue it is disfigurement to cut the hair of a poodle rather than leaving it in its natural state. The issue is whether it causes unnecessary suffering to the animal.

With regard to section 12(2), I thought the transport of animals was covered elsewhere in the Bill so why is it included as a separate section? Surely it is included in the wording of section 12(1)(a) as something one does. With regard to section 12(5)(b), will the Minister outline the exact legal standing of the codes of practice he proposes? In section 12(6), the Minister is in favour of reasonable grounds instead of being against them. Amendment No. 20 proposes to delete the reference to reasonable grounds and replace it with "evidence". The argument is that "reasonable grounds" give huge powers to an authorised officer and may be open to abuse. I appreciate the Minister has dealt with dependent offspring in amendment No. 22 and I will agree to this amendment. In amendment No. 21 we propose to include the phrase "or will be" in section 12(8).