Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 9 July 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Alleged Issue of Abuse of Greyhounds: Bord na gCon

Photo of Marcella Corcoran KennedyMarcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegation for attending the committee this evening. What is the freefone helpline number mentioned earlier? The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has a helpline for people who wish to talk in confidence about animal welfare issues. Is a licence required to exports greyhounds to, say, China? What is the procedure that somebody must go through to export a greyhound? Are trainers licensed? How does one become a trainer? Bord na gCon stated it has a new race management system which was put in place last October. How is it working? Has it been evaluated? There has been some public discourse about the withdrawal of sponsorship from greyhound racing. How will this impact on the business?

How do we prevent dogs being doped? Does a dog have to get blood tests in advance of a race? Is it detection such as checking a greyhound suddenly whizzing around the track after having failed miserably over the past six months? Is there a way of preventing doping before a dog ever goes near a track?

There was a reference to lurchers in the presentation and that Bord na gCon’s responsibilities do not extend to them. Does Mr. Nyhan feel the television programme dragged Bord na gCon into the lurcher scenario? How are greyhounds identified as being microchipped? It is a regulatory requirement. Is it checked at every race meeting?

The report from Preferred Results Limited highlighted the industry was failing from a commercial and regulatory point of view. What is Bord na gCon’s response to that?

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