Ms Brenda Fitzpatrick:

Yes, absolutely. Louise O'Tuama and I are part of WAG Animal Rescue - WAG stands for "working animal guardians" - where we work with some of the dog rescues nationwide. We have evidence of dogs which have been stolen turning up, down the road, in rescues or in pounds. It happened to us recently with a Pomeranian that came into our care having allegedly been found in Ballyfermot. Months later, we found out that this dog had actually been stolen. We reunited the dog with the owner. Again, it highlights the power of the microchip. If a dog is not microchipped, it makes it a million times harder to do that. One can say that sometimes it is an act of luck that we can reunite them, but if a dog is microchipped it accelerates the process of trying to reunite the dog with the rightful owner.

The Deputy is absolutely correct that having more publicity out there on responsible dog ownership, on the microchipping of dogs, and on not leaving dogs abandoned outside shops or letting them run around in the street or front gardens, is absolutely essential.

I will make one further point because it is such a serious issue that we are bringing forward, and Ms O'Connor has done so much work on it for all of these years. There should be a very heavy societal penalty imposed on those who are guilty of stealing people's hearts from their families, including a lifetime ban on them owning animals. The issue of horses is serious, and My Lovely Horse Rescue is doing Trojan work on that. However, in many ways, I think it is easier to start with domestic animals that people have in their homes. It is easier for others to identify on an emotional level because they might have a dog or a cat, and so on. The vast majority of people in Ireland would be absolutely in support of this. We hope the Department of agriculture and also the powers that be in this wonderful House - we greatly value the input of the politicians - can get behind this, support it and bring it into law.