Ms Bairbre Nic Aongusa:

They are required to make the register available for inspection by members of the public at all reasonable times. We carried out a search of all local authority websites and it indicated that 15 published their list online. Seven had no commercial dog-breeding establishments and therefore did not publish a list, whereas nine did not publish online anyway. The Department has raised the matter with the dog control working group, which is under the auspices of the County and City Management Association, CCMA. It was agreed by the CCMA that the publication of the dog-breeding establishment details should remain at the local authority's discretion. This aligns with the current legislation.

The question of whether the legislation should be amended to impose stricter conditions is something we will be considering in our review of the legislation. I will ask Ms Gavaghan to address some of the other issues raised.