Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

-----on the committee at this point. A criticism of the control of dogs through the years is that it is between several posts. It is a reasonable point. The key thing about the establishment of the committee, which includes our Department, the Department of Rural and Community Development, An Garda Síochána and local authorities, is that it coheres all those efforts and has come up with a strategy for controlling. I may ask Ms Fanning to say a little more on this issue. The most important part of it is encouraging responsible dog ownership. I have seen horrifying reports of attacks on sheep, for example. In very few, if any, of those cases was a dog found. One can do all one likes about control, increasing penalties and identification-----