Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

No matter how we go, there is about €14 million or €15 million being spent between different Departments, between grants the Minister gives, and what is given to local authorities. This is to solve something that should not be, to be quite frank about it. This is for the simple reason that when one gets a dog, one is responsible for it. When one buys a car, there is a tax book with it, and wherever it is got, one is done. That is the long and the short of it. We need to get a bit tougher on this craic. It is lovely looking at something but the message has to be clear that there are responsibilities with it.

Regarding the talk about costs or whatever, a lot of young vets are now going into small animals because at least they will not be kicked like they would with a bullock. That is the reality, and there is no point in saying anything different. In cities, a lot of people have a lot of pets. The numbers have blown up. In fact, we could do with some of the vets out the country in a lot of cases. I see it in England with regard to horses and dogs, where people were brought down the road of this insurance craic, and all it did was put them straight into the hands of vets, being straight about it. It was a licence that gave them more money. That is being straight.