Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to pick up on the points in Ms Bristow's submission about how dogs, as companion animals, are in a sort of no man's land, in that they are not treated as livestock but there is no VAT on them and this leads to a lack of invoicing from those DBEs on the bigger scale. When I went looking on some of the platforms, I saw one particular seller had €60,000 worth of dogs for sale in one week alone. That gives an idea of the scale we are talking about and the revenue potentially lost there as well. Mr. Brennan has probably addressed some of that but does that traceability help with the Revenue keeping track of this? Of course, we all want people to go for rescue dogs. However, if a person chooses to buy a particular breed of dog from a supplier, what sort of consumer protections are in place if there are no companion animals to find, because they are in this no man's land?

I also want our guests' opinions on something else. Senator Paul Daly was talking about sheep-worrying and so on. One of the Bills I have been working on with the DSPCA relates to linking the microchip to the licence system as a proof of ownership. In the current situation, a person can get a dog licence within a matter of hours online and there is a space for a microchip number but he or she is not obliged to fill it in. Does the trust agree it would be helpful to have that joined-up approach? That way we are not denying the local authority the revenue from the licence fee but we are bringing that joined-up approach to it, whereby the microchip and the licence are the proof of ownership. Those are the two points I wanted to raise.