Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wanted to follow up on that. I do not understand why the Department would not ask. I take on board that people might be reluctant to admit why they are surrendering their dogs. They might lie. That is part and parcel of it. Yet, I do not understand why it is not mandatory to at least ask the question and collect an answer. The experience of most people with the charities is that they will always say when they surrender dogs is that there must be no judgement. They ask for no comments underneath. They will say that the dog has come back in because of the housing crisis or for whatever issue. I just do not understand why they would not require for the question to at least be asked. If somebody lies, then somebody lies. It should at least be asked. Previously, we have raised the issue - but this is anecdotal because data is not being collected properly - of how 30% of the surrenders were down to the housing crisis. We need policy changes and we need data to support the arguments for those changes.