Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank the witnesses for their presentations. From what I heard, it is my understanding that everybody has to get a dog licence. Why can we not incorporate all of this? If I own a car, for instance, I must have the serial number and everything right when I got to tax it. If I do not have everything right then it will not be taxed and will obviously be seized. I am reading into what the witnesses said this evening with regard to powers that the ISPCA can check if a dog is cropped.

The council warden would then have to check whether they have a licence. Are there many dogs in Ireland all together? In the agricultural sector, we have an animal identification and movement, AIM, system thorough which we are able to control nearly every animal in the country. Why do we not have something like that in the dog sector to enable us to control both the breeding and dogs generally?