Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

There are clearly major concerns among those in the dog-breeding industry regarding who will control this system. Section 17 outlines the different ways that a person breeding dogs with six bitches or more can be controlled. It is vital that only veterinary surgeons authorised by a local authority should have the final say. The breeders are rightly very worried that others outside the control of the local authority would have any role in compliance. I would like the Minister to clarify this.

On the issue of the dog licensing I am clearly interested in the figures given by the Minister regarding how much money is collected through the existing fees. This was an issue I constantly raised when I was a member of Monaghan County Council. After each of the elections I went through for either the council or the Dáil, I could never understand why there was so little money collected from the dog licence fee because every house I visited had at least one dog and in many cases far more. I can assure the Minister there were very few houses where there were no dogs at all. I appreciate that some of them may be strays but I would suggest that 90% of them were owner owned. Clearly little effort was made to ensure that each dog was licensed. I would have thought that the first approach to raise more money should have been to improve licence fee collection rather than increase the amount. If this was done there would be more than sufficient money available to control the sector.

I want to return to the general thrust of the Bill. A full-page article in the Irish Independent reported that Deputy Lowry had negotiations with the Government - I am not sure if it was with the Minister, Deputy Gormley, or with the Taoiseach. He claims that he has secured sufficient changes to the Bill to allow him to support it. However, it is vital that the Minister makes it clear in his concluding speech on Second Stage that hunting clubs, owners of beagles and owners of greyhounds are exempt.

One active member of the Green Party made a statement at a well attended public meeting in Monaghan town that a puppy farm only a mile from his home was a disgrace or something to that effect. I visited the only dog breeding farm that I am aware of in that area and found the beagles better looked after than many children. The Minister and his supporters want to bring about a bureaucracy for dog breeders which is completely unnecessary and I would object to the Bill in that context.

It is impossible to believe that the Green Party Members believe this as such an important and serious issue when if they walk out through the door of Leinster House at night they would clearly see those individuals in need of housing lying in doorways. Even more frightening is a 25% increase in suicide, mainly in rural areas. For many people living on their own a beagle hunt or a day at the dogs is one of the few things they have to live for and I beg the Minister to ensure that none of these people are even worse off after the Bill is passed than they are at present. I fully support the control of puppy farms used for commercial purposes. However, to introduce these other issues is unfair.

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