Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials from the Department of agriculture and the Department of rural and community affairs. They have engaged whereas some people do not take this issue that seriously. Well done to them. We have read their statements, for which I thank them.

I want to leave the witnesses with one point regarding local authority responsibilities for the operation of dog breeding establishments. We know they are responsible but they do not altogether know their responsibilities. I speak to sitting county councillors every day and, again, they have gone to their local authorities on this issue. I have come across people in my own local authority area where there is dog breeding going on with up to six, seven or eight dogs in a semi-detached house with a small garden, smaller than the inner circle of this meeting room. Of course, if people make a complaint, they are put through the hoops and they have to give their name and address, and there are sometimes very aggressive people involved, perhaps people involved in other unsavoury activities. Neighbours are being pitched against each other. I am talking about the Dublin local authorities, which I have more experience of. They do not want to know. They say it has to be put in writing and, of course, people have issues with that. There is a real issue. In Dublin, I see that there are still very large dogs in one-bedroom apartments. When people make complaints, they are intimidated, and when they then go to the local authority or otherwise, they are not supported.

There are a lot of issues and this impacts on animal welfare. We need to crystallise the responsibilities. We need an advertising campaign and we need to support people. The public generally are watchdogs in terms of animal welfare and our best animal welfare policing mechanism is our citizens, farmers and so on. I am not convinced that people are supported in regard to reporting dog breeding in very inappropriate circumstances. I do not need the witnesses to respond but I ask them to take this away with them. We need to crystallise the responsibilities and we need a public education programme. I particularly thank the Department of Rural and Community Development, which has done a lot of work on this. It is something that we need to continue to build on with the CCMA to see how we can do it. It is about empowering people to be able to report issues with regard to animal welfare but, more importantly, that they are then supported and not exposed or intimidated in the process.

Well done to all involved. I thank the witnesses for giving us their time today.