Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)

As Deputy O'Sullivan said, the purpose of this Bill is to allow somebody with a hunting licence issued after 1 August 2009 to carry on shooting wild birds and hares in the relevant open season. That is what it is about. It brings the issue of the welfare of hares to the forefront. It invites us to consider whether it is appropriate to treat them in this way. I totally agree with what Deputy O'Sullivan said when she spoke about the shooting of wild birds. The importance of the conservation of certain species of birds must be adhered to. It is appropriate for Deputies to ask what the hare has ever done to the Irish Parliament. The Bill we are discussing, which is being fast-tracked, will allow wild birds and hares to be shot.

This House has not yet been given an opportunity to debate a large and important Bill that has been published. The legislation in question - the Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012 - is being introduced to protect animals from cruelty and unnecessary suffering. That vital Bill is being delayed but the Bill before the House is being fast-tracked. It is appropriate to link the two. The Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012 talks about the prohibition of terrifying or baiting an animal. It goes on to exempt hare coursing. One Bill acknowledges that hare coursing is cruel by putting in an exemption for hares. Hares are exempt from protection in one Bill and are included in this Bill to allow them to be shot, presumably over the course of the next few months, in case some of them got away or something like that. I do not really know what the agenda is.

It is appropriate to say that this barbarity must stop. What did the hare ever do? We are talking about making provision for licences to allow people to shoot this unique animal - an endemic sub-species that is not found anywhere else in the world - in the open season. I am suggesting that other forms of treatment of this species, such as hare coursing activity, are relevant in this context. We have allowed this activity to continue for more than 100 years while other jurisdictions have been criminalising it. Hare coursing was appropriately outlawed in New South Wales in 1953, in New Zealand in 1954, in Victoria in 1964, in South Australia in 1985, in Scotland in 2002, in England and Wales in 2005 and in Northern Ireland in 2010. These jurisdictions have criminalised hare coursing - it is treated as a criminal offence - but this country is carrying on regardless by allowing hares to be treated in a totally inappropriate manner. It is scandalous that this activity continues regularly in ten counties: Clare, Kerry, Cork, Kilkenny, Donegal, Tipperary, Wexford, Limerick, Galway and Dublin. Balbriggan, in my own constituency, is the only place in County Dublin where it is allowed to take place.

It is appropriate to draw attention to this matter. The Irish Coursing Club has said that hares come to no harm in coursing because they are protected by the existing rules governing the sport, as the club calls it. That is completely and utterly false. It does not stand up to any scrutiny of the evidence.

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