Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I welcome the officials of both Departments. I have some points to put to them. I am conscious that we are dealing with dangerous dog breeds and sheep worrying. That is the heading we are dealing with. I thank the officials for the concise way in which they laid out their submissions. They were circulated to the committee members and we have discussed them.

I will first deal with questions in regard to the Department of Rural and Community Development. On page 4 it states that the Department’s intentions in 2023 are to interrogate the statistics provided by local authorities more rigorously than in previous years. That is interesting language, the terms “interrogate” and “rigorously”. I would have thought they were always rigorous. The Department has identified there is a need to do this, and I welcome that. Why now? What makes the Department need to be rigorous now? Is there something it knows or is concerned about in regard to the returns it is getting from the local authorities? That is one point.

There is a good deal of emphasis on local authorities’ responsibilities. They are huge. This monitoring situation crosses a number of Departments. Are the officials satisfied that there is sufficient finance, resources and skillsets in place within the local authorities to carry out this work? What have they done to further support local authorities in that important work? Is it appropriate that the local authorities should have to take as much of this responsibility? Would the Department advocate that one department or one focus group should deal with these issues?

The officials state that a working group on the control of dogs has been set up. This was initiated or requested by the then Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin. What is the timeline for the delivery of this working group? Is it weeks or months? What are the terms of reference? When is it going to deliver? When is it going to report and when will positive actions come as a result?

That is on page 5 of the Department's opening statement. The Department of Rural and Community Development states it intends to increase the penalties for livestock worrying. Will Mr. Geraghty set out what is the Department's vision and intentions? What will it recommend? On page 8 of the opening statement a communications campaign and communication strategy are mentioned. Will Mr. Geraghty share with us some of this communications strategy? If not today perhaps he might send it to us. I am not convinced about the communications campaign and strategy as of yet but there may be something coming that we do not know about and I would like to hear about it.

Mr. Geraghty spoke about the new dog control working group and said that it will be key in this regard. Yes it will but we need to know what is happening. I will leave Mr. Geraghty with these few points and I ask him to be as concise as possible in his replies.