Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Wildlife Act 1976.

I rise today, as the late Deputy, Tony Gregory, did in 1993 when he introduced a Private Members' Bill on wildlife to ban hare coursing. He spoke then about "the welfare of the vulnerable and defenceless in nature's creation". While greyhounds today are muzzled, the cruelty continues for the hares. That is the reason the Bill I propose will make it unlawful to engage in live hare coursing.

Hare coursing involves the terrorising of one animal by another. It causes unnecessary cruelty every year to thousands of hares through stress, injury and death. It is a total contradiction that on the one hand the hare is protected under the Wildlife Act but the Act also protects hare coursing. The legislation states that it is illegal to trap and sell hares other than for the specific purpose of coursing them. On the one hand the hare is protected, except when it comes to coursing.

Let us examine the procedures involved in coursing. I am sorry, a Cheann Comhairle, but I just noticed that the clock is not running.

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