Mr. Conor Brennan:

I thank the Senator for her list of questions and for looking at this issue. I know it does not fall under the remit of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, but we very much welcome that this committee is addressing the issue. It is to be hoped the Department will come before the committee to discuss it.

Dogs Trust is looking for joined-up thinking across the issue of the different pieces of legislation. The question is whether that is the end goal. It is a matter of Departments, particularly the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Rural and Community Development, looking to work together. At present they are looking at different legislation across the issue. They are reviewing all the key legislation. From what we have seen, however, that has not quite transpired, so there is increasingly a lot of merit in this legislation falling under one Department, whichever it may be. I stress that we are looking for an end result whereby there is joined-up thinking, but if the matter comes under one Department and that is what helps to bring this to fruition, all the better. We would support that.

The guidelines were very welcome when they came out in 2018. There is a lot of very good advice for the inspectors, for example, and on what dog breeding establishments should do within the guidelines. I refer to hygiene, diet, clean water and so forth. The problem is they are guidelines. We would love to see them put on a statutory footing. The one key issue within the guidelines I will raise is one that was referred to in our opening statement, that is, the ratio of one staff member to 25 breeding bitches. That is completely untenable. There could be 150 dogs and one full-time staff member. That is a key issue within the guidelines and it needs to be addressed. It points to some of Senator Boylan's other questions. From having talked to the Department, we understand that even the idea of one full-time staff member to ten breeding bitches can be entertained, but that is a bare minimum. Dogs Trust recommends one full-time staff member to seven dogs, not just breeding bitches, that is, one full-time staff member to three whelping wards. That will give the committee an idea of the gap in standards that may exist in respect of dog breeding establishments.

It also points to Senator Boylan's question about mechanisation and non-human supervision. To give the committee an idea of what is required, humans are needed in socialisation and habituation of dogs as well as in making sure there is no spread of disease and dogs are not in cramped settings and in their own excrement. Those are the things on which humans need to interact with dogs. They need to clean particular types of dogs in particular settings. Automation and mechanisation does not bode well for the needs of particular dogs. We would warn against that.