Mr. Conor Brennan:

On the first question about one Department, in an ideal world these really crucial Bills would sit under one Department. The key Departments involved are Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Rural and Community Development. That in itself is not the issue though. We would hope that if they were under one Department there would be more joined-up thinking. The fact they are under say, two Departments, mainly, is not in itself the issue. We encourage more joined-up thinking, crucially around something like the dog breeding establishment, DBE, licence register as it relates to say, the online advertising of dogs. There is a connection there; it is in the rules that if a person has a DBE licence he or she must list it but more joined-up thinking is needed about how compliance is really strengthened because at the moment, I do not know if it is lack of education but there is a severe lack of compliance. Therefore, we really urge that there be joined-up thinking. The Department is hoping to review the DBE Act. It had a consultation on the Control of Dogs Acts and we are continually telling it to ensure this fits in with the legislation from other Departments.