Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As a dog owner, this issue is very important. I was a member of the committee dealing with dog ownership in Fingal County Council for six years. We had a very serious issue regarding the pound. Would it be better for one Department to have overall control of all issues relating to dogs and pets? A simple "Yes" or "No" will do. Would it make a significant difference? If too many people are involved in it, it just confuses things. Senator Boylan and I spent a bit of time trying to figure out who is responsible for what and at what stage. If we are doing that here, I am sure the ordinary lay person would be totally confused.

I am very interested in how we could ban cash sales. It is regulated to a certain extent but is not really enforced to a great extent so how would that work? My next question concerns the rate at which dogs are destroyed.

Ms Bristow has mentioned that this has improved. Has that improvement been seen across the board or are there certain areas in which it is still an issue?

My last question is on a matter in which I have an interest. How do we define dangerous breeds? One German shepherd might be an absolute pet and a dote while another may be trained to be a guard dog. There is a local guy who lives around the corner from me who trains German shepherds for movies and television. It is incredible how intelligent and well-trained his dogs are. The issue relates to how certain breeds of dogs are perceived. I have a husky and some perceive her as a dangerous dog. She would be more likely to lick a person to death than to bite someone but there are other huskies that have caused problems in our local park. How do we get around that? How do we improve the definition? I always say that it is a matter of bad owners rather than necessarily one of bad dogs.

In addition to the different Departments, we also have all of the local authorities, some of which operate in a better and more effective way than others with regard to dogs. Would it be better for such matters to come under one organisation or Department, separate from the local authorities?