Ms Una Jansen:

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to address the committee. I am spokesperson for the Greyhound Rescue Association Ireland, GRAI. I am accompanied by my colleagues, Ms Jessica Reid and Ms Margaret Moran. Our organisation was set up in 2010. We are an entirely voluntary organisation. We were founded as an umbrella group of animal rescues, which were taking in large numbers of Irish racing greyhounds, and people who were concerned about greyhound welfare in Ireland. Our primary purpose at the outset was to promote greyhounds as pets in Ireland and to advocate for improvements in greyhound welfare, and I am pleased that there has been progress in both of these areas in recent years. We believe, however, that we have a lot further to go before we can honestly say that we have a reasonable level of greyhound welfare in Ireland.

Since our organisation was established, there has been a substantial increase in the engagement of the public with animal welfare matters. We have recently witnessed public outrage over the puppy farm scandals and international protests at dog meat festivals in China. An estimated 74% of Irish people use social media and it is thanks to sites like Facebook and Twitter that more and more people are becoming aware of, and interested in, animal welfare. Social media has had a big role to play in the decline of greyhound racing in Ireland. As greyhounds become more popular as pets, public perception of the breed is changing and people no longer view them just as racing dogs. The reputation of greyhound racing has suffered greatly as a result of numerous scandals involving doping, animal cruelty and mismanagement of funds. RTE's "Prime Time" recently aired a feature on the doping of greyhounds within the industry, and several newspaper articles have exposed what has been coined as "the grim underbelly of the greyhound industry". The impact of these scandals has been felt at every track and it is the reason that when somebody suggests holding the work Christmas party at a greyhound track, in almost every office now, there is somebody else who will have ethical reservations.

Along with many individuals and organisations, GRAI has tried for many years to put an accurate number of the number of registered greyhounds in Ireland to no avail, due to the fact that litters, rather than individual greyhounds, are registered with the Irish Coursing Club, ICC, and only details of the individual greyhounds registered-named for racing can be viewed on the IGB and ICC websites. The status of each greyhound named and registered is not always accurate. Greyhounds can be sold abroad, retired for breeding, die of natural causes, be abandoned, or be destroyed legally or illegally, and the data are never recorded. It is unacceptable in this day and age that registered racing greyhounds go missing. A system exists for cattle whereby every head is accounted for and, therefore, we know it can be done. Until a system accounting for every registered greyhound is put in place, we cannot seriously say that we have true concern for greyhound welfare in Ireland.

The IGB and the greyhound industry has received a total of €99.36 million from the public purse since 2010. That is almost €100 million for an organisation that is unable to accurately state the number of dogs involved in the industry. With public funding comes public accountability and a need for transparency in the form of a proper system capable of monitoring every greyhound in Ireland from whelping until death. Greyhound owners must be held accountable for the dogs in their care. If a dog is destroyed, then the owners should provide a certificate from a veterinarian to prove that it was done humanely. If a dog is sold, a change of ownership form should be submitted to the IGB and if an owner or trainer is inspected and he or she cannot account for dogs registered to their care, there needs to be serious and long lasting repercussions for him or her.

Greyhounds continue to turn up in pounds and rescues across the country in their hundreds and the Irish Retired Greyhound Trust, IGRT, has none of the resources required to deal with these dogs. We are told time and again by greyhound owners and trainers that they are not prepared to wait for months for an IGRT place to come up. Greyhounds that are healthy and could be re-homed are being destroyed because there are no kennels to go to. There are many small, independent dog rescues around Ireland doing their best to help out with these dogs but with no financial support from the IGB, it is impossible to keep up with the flood of dogs needing homes. In spite of this, in April 2016, the IGB implemented a €700,000 breeding incentive programme to encourage people to breed more greyhounds. GRAI was deeply disappointed to hear of this programme. In a shrinking greyhound industry, it makes absolutely no sense to increase breeding and it was even more disheartening that no additional funding whatsoever was allocated to re-homing. The IRGT does not even have one re-homing centre; its British counterpart has 65. The trust receives the most recent data available. By comparison, in the same year, the British RGT received £1.4 million. Indeed, the Indecon report of 2014 recommended a significant increase in funding to re-homing organisations but we have seen nothing to date.

There are other issues in the industry which GRAI believes need to be addressed but we believe that the three of most concern are lack of traceability, lack of funding for re-homing organisations and the need for greyhound breeding to be decreased. We appreciate that the issue of exports could not be accommodated in these amendments at this time. However, areas of exports do raise huge concerns for GRAI and we look forward to the progression of the recently proposed amendments for this Bill tabled by Deputy Tommy Broughan. We hope to see deserved time and support given to it. It is most encouraging to see that the Department is reviewing greyhound welfare legislation and we are cautiously optimistic about the results of today's session.