Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank members for making the time to debate this legislation on Committee Stage. It has spent some time reaching this point. We navigated it through both the Seanad and Second Stage in the Dáil. I hope to have it passed into law as soon as possible. Everyone accepts that it is well overdue.

I will address this group of amendments relating to the creation of a white list of countries approved for the export of greyhounds and a report on greyhound exports together. While I appreciate that the motives of the members proposing the amendments are concerned with the welfare of greyhounds, I am not convinced that the amendments would have the desired effect even if it was legally possible to ban greyhound exports to certain countries. At the outset, I wish to be clear that I am not here to defend any other country's record on animal welfare.

The amendments would be unworkable and impossible to enforce. The reality is that the majority of greyhounds are exported to the UK. It is not for the Department to police whether greyhounds sent to the UK or any other country are subsequently sent on to a different country. If the Department tried to police whether greyhounds sent abroad were subsequently sent on to another country, all we would do is add bureaucracy on responsible greyhound exporters and owners while failing to stop an unscrupulous exporter who had exported to a country with a problematic welfare record.

Setting aside the unworkability of the amendments, there should be no doubt that any legislation banning the exports of greyhounds to certain countries would face significant legal difficulties. The Department examined this issue and sought and obtained legal advice from the Office of the Attorney General on the Private Members' Bill introduced by Deputy Broughan, which proposed measures similar to those being discussed now. The advice from the Attorney General was that said Private Members' Bill was incompatible with domestic and European law.

Most importantly, and despite our differences on the amendments proposed, the Deputies and I share the same aim of protecting the welfare of animals. The Welfare of Greyhounds Act 2011 obliges Bord na gCon to publish a code of practice for the welfare of greyhounds. The primary objective of the code is to set standards and clearly define what is expected of all individuals engaged in the care and management of registered greyhounds. In this context, the board proposes to expand the existing code to include provisions on best practice when exporting greyhounds.

Bord na gCon has always made it clear that it only encourages and promotes the export of greyhounds to countries that have established positive animal welfare codes and practices. Bord na gCon is a participant in the International Greyhound Forum, the organisation being proposed in amendment No. 1 as a decision maker over the white list. At a recent meeting, the board advised participants that it would engage with and accept input from members of the forum in formulating the expanded code. The board has informed me that it is fully committed to amending the code and that work on the expanded code will be finalised when consideration of this Bill has been completed.

In terms of reporting on exports of greyhounds, it is not currently possible to retrieve the information being requested by the Deputies. The trade control and expert system, TRACES, that is used to record the export of canines does not differentiate between greyhounds and other dogs. Breed is not a category used in TRACES for categorising any animal within the same species, so it is not possible to report on greyhounds exported to other countries. For this reason, I cannot accept the amendments.