Mr. Andrew Geary:

If I could address the question about where we are compared with the UK, I have studied the models across the world from a parent's perspective, although I am totally new to all this. Although we were number one in Europe in 2005, we have slipped off that radar. We were the first in Europe to have an autism assistance dog programme and now, as Deputy Mitchell O'Connor highlighted, the UK has 1,000 hearing dogs while we have one in the country at present, in Dublin, which was provided by a UK charity. Ms Dowler is kindly training one as an example to prove it is possible. She has enough other disabilities to cover that it will not be part of her list.

Looking at the English-speaking world from a parent's perspective, there is a lot more protection for me if I am refused in New Zealand, Australia, Canada or the UK compared to here. The legislation there is very similar to that which was drafted here, as Ms Kennedy highlighted. It is in either the equality or the equal status Acts generally, and is piggybacked onto previous legislation. The UK put its legislation around assistance dogs in place in 2009 and it is already out of date because the country has suffered with the rogue element. Almost everywhere there is an assistance dog programme, there is a problem with it.

There was a question from Deputy Healy about numbers. We have about 650 working dog partnerships in the country, including guide dogs and assistance dogs. The demand is infinitely greater than that. We have at least 750 on our waiting lists for assistance dogs for children on the autism spectrum. Only My Canine Companion will deal with children beyond the four to seven age range. There needs to be research into whether the dog would continue to provide health and physical benefits beyond that.

I am involved with the Cork Deaf Association and other deaf charities. Going by demographics, if there are 1,000 dogs to a population of 60 million in the UK and if we divide that number by 12, we would probably need between 80 and 100 hearing dogs in Ireland. In the UK, those hearing dogs are broken down into 150 dogs for children and about 850 for adult partnerships. After guide dogs for the blind, the second biggest need internationally is for hearing dogs.

I am involved with the criminal justice system in my full-time job and I am delighted that Assistance Dogs International, ADI, is providing a very strong baseline for our charities here. They are all singing from the same hymn sheet. Two of them are formally approved by ADI and the other two are in the partnership scheme and on the way to full approval. Thanks to the Irish Kennel Club and Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind we expect to bring another expert from ADI from Europe to meet with our umbrella group in the new year. We had a conference last year which was addressed by the chairperson of the European side of Assistance Dogs International. Senator Colm Burke was present on that day.

As regards legislation, there is a need to protect parents. The standards set by our charities are so high but there is a need to protect people from going down the route of the rogue operator. According to the legislation in New Zealand, there are no recognised partnerships other than those approved by the legislature. The dog partnership charity or company has to be ADI approved, as a minimum, in order to get state permission to travel around that country.