Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The logic is that things could happen despite what the person might do. For example, cats and dogs get run over by cars. Many people have domestic cats. If someone allows his or her cat run about the back yard and it can get over the back wall and out onto the road, as most people do, has that person taken all necessary steps to ensure he or she has safeguarded the health and welfare of the animal? If the cat gets killed, the question is whether the person took all necessary steps or all reasonable steps. I believe it is reasonable to let a cat out, but if a person must ensure he or she has taken all necessary steps to look after the health and welfare of the animal, he or she would never let the cat out. I rest my case.