Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of dogs, a couple of weeks ago I outlined that fines under the Control of Dogs Act will increase from 1 December. Previously, all fines were €100, regardless of how serious the offence was. We now have a fine of €300, and multiple fines can be issued at the same time. The Cathaoirleach is dead right. If we are not out there and we do not have dog wardens making sure that people are punished for not keeping their dogs under control, it is no good. There are a couple of Departments involved in this, my Department and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It is responsible for the dog wardens. That extra €2 million was to give them more money to buy vans. I cannot pay them because the area is not under my Department, but I have been speaking to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage about it. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and I set up a working group to look at what we are going to do regarding the review of the Control of Dogs Act and the breeding establishment legislation.

On the fines, there are more serious fines, and I am going to increase them as far as I can. I got advice from the Attorney General on the matter. I would have increased the fines to more than €300, but I was told that was as far as I could go. There are other fines that I will be bringing in, and I will be looking at passing legislation for that. I am setting up a stakeholder group that will include everybody, from the dog shelters to the societies that help people in supporting, training and looking after their dogs. I will be including representatives of the NARCG, the games people. I will also be bringing in the farmers. I am bringing them all into one committee where they can sit down and come up with recommendations on how we are going to deal with this problem. I have seen sheep that were savaged by dogs and believe me, it is not a sight to behold. It is desperate. That is bad, but it is worse when you see what happened the children that were attacked by dogs. I read in the paper that a man died because a dog bit him, and we heard what happened in England with the XL bully dog. There are people that are breeding dogs that are weapons of intimidation. That is wrong and it should not be happening. We do not ban dogs in this country. We have a list of restricted breeds. If you have a restricted breed, you are obliged to follow certain rules. When the committee sits, if it wants to come up with that recommendations that particular dogs will be banned, I have no problem with doing it. That is the truth. I know the Cathaoirleach feels the same way.

We are also going to do a communications campaign on responsible dog ownership because God knows, sometimes it is not the poor dog, but the person that owns the dog, who is at fault.

They need to be held to account and to treat the dog properly. The Department will work closely with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and we will deliver the targeted campaign as early as possible in 2024. The local authorities are responsible for enforcement. Some of them say they do not have enough dog wardens. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, and I think he is open to increasing the number of dog wardens. It is an issue. We need to sort it out and that is what we are trying to do. It is the same when there are a couple of Departments.

Regarding digital projects, they are funded under A6. There is €3.4 million available for a range of activities. We had the connected hubs fund, which was very welcome. We were able to help some of the digital hubs and the remote working hubs upgrade their facilities, whether it was to put in extra equipment or buy the pods and different things. We spent a good few bob on that. Today, as we speak, there is a digital hub conference going on, looking at how we move forward, how we make sure they are sustainable, how we manage them, how we get access to them and how we continue to make sure that remote working, which has been a game-changer for rural Ireland and there is no doubt about that, does not slip away from us. We need to consolidate what we have, see how we can make it better and make sure more people are using our remote working hubs. We need to allay the fears of employers. Sometimes, some people think that if they cannot see their employees, it means the employees are not working. That is not the case. In the majority of cases, people can be more productive when they are working from home. They are spending less time stressed out on the road and all the rest. It is about how we continue to build on that and support employers and employees to embrace the new digital word that we live in. Sin é.