Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. First, I want to welcome Ms Bristow and Mr. Brennan. I thank them and acknowledge the enormous work they do in Dogs Trust. It is an impressive charity. I know a certain amount about it because I know people who are involved in it. More than 1,000 dogs were rehomed in 2020. That is a phenomenal success story in itself. The two areas on which I want to concentrate today are about the funding of Dogs Trust and on the mechanism for funding. I know it gets many voluntary contributions, but does it get State funding or funding from the local authorities? The reason I ask is that I carried out a survey of all 31 local authorities about two years ago. It first identified what money they had received from the Department. It tried to identify where the allocation was. What was very clear was that many authorities had not passed on money they had ringfenced for animal welfare. That raised a number of concerns. We had serious issues in regard to animals in a number of counties, which were documented in the local and provincial press. Again, some local authorities were not proactive. Other authorities are exceptionally proactive. I would like to hear about the funding mechanism and how it secures funding. I am sure it never has enough. The witnesses might talk to us about that and about their relationship with the 31 local authorities. I do not expect them to take me through all 31 local authorities but, generally, the relationships Dogs Trust has with designated people involved in animal welfare, dogs and related issues. That is important because I detect inconsistent and patchy commitments in different local authorities.

Where does Dogs Trust get its funding? What percentage of its funding comes from voluntary sources as opposed to State, agency or Department funding? Could the witnesses address those two issues?