Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)

We cannot say enough about education, information and raising awareness. To be fair, we should come at it from the perspective that most people want to do the right thing.

Most people love their pets and want to protect them. Even most people who do not have pets think there should be rules in place to ensure pets and companion animals are protected. People maybe think there is a lot more protection out there than there actually is. We could have a bit of work to do in raising awareness. That is why we are delighted the witnesses are here, and to be fair, that they have stuck with this. I know they have been at it for a while. The danger here is that there is a bit of social protection, which does the licences. There is a bit of agriculture because it deals with animals. There is a bit of justice because of An Garda, and a bit of housing, local government and heritage because the local authorities have a big role. It is one of those things where when everybody is responsible, sometimes nobody is responsible. As a committee we can have consideration as to what we can do to focus the attention of the Oireachtas onto this issue. I know that will form part of our discussions. Do members have further questions?