Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have a brief opportunity to speak on this important motion brought forward by my colleagues, Deputies O'Sullivan and Daly, and the other members of the Independents 4 Change technical group. I commend my colleagues on this motion.

While there has been some tiny progress on animal welfare since the 2013 Act, there are still increasing reports of animal cruelty, loopholes in regulation and insufficient monitoring and enforcement across the spectrum of animal care. As Deputy O'Sullivan stated, the Minister told the House this time last year that there had only been 13 successful prosecutions under the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 in one year and that there were 38 prosecution files being processed at that time. These numbers seem incredibly low, given the many millions of animals reared each year. At present, there are 12 million domestic farm animals in the Republic alone.

On 21 March this year, I introduced the Welfare of Greyhounds (Amendment) Bill 2017. A few hours ago, I asked the Minister whether he could incorporate this Bill into the Bill on the greyhound sector and I found his reply a little disappointing. All we were seeking to do in the Bill was to control the export of greyhounds, to provide for publication of the white list to which the export of greyhounds under licence would be permissible, and to make it an offence to export a greyhound to a country that is not included in the white list.

Over recent years, the welfare of the dogs being exported, and racing and retired greyhounds has become a major campaign issue. Irish greyhounds were exported to Macau, China, to race in the famous Yat Yeun Canidrome. The public is very upset at reports of this and that dogs are raced to death and then end up somewhere in the food chain. The response from the Government and the greyhound board regarding the export of Irish dogs to countries with appalling or no animal welfare standards has so far been useless. While the white list that we proposed in the Welfare of Greyhounds (Amendment) Bill 2017 cannot provide for the selling on from other jurisdictions, it would give Ireland the opportunity to be a leader in this area. I listened carefully to campaigners who want the export of greyhounds beyond these islands stopped completely.

I also welcome contacts with Ms Nessa Childers MEP to discuss the work of the European Parliament animal welfare intergroup this autumn and the possibility that the European Parliament can establish centres across the current 28 European Union member states.

The Greyhound Rescue Association claims that there are approximately 38 greyhounds being put down monthly and traceability issues also remain because greyhounds are not microchipped from birth. The Greyhound Rescue Association claims that up to 10,000 of our wonderful Irish greyhounds could be unaccounted for each year.

Earlier in the year, as I mentioned this afternoon, broadcaster Sharon Ní Bheoláin and "Prime Time" aired the famous programme "Gone to the Dogs", which put the spotlight on doping and the poor regulation generally in the greyhound sector in Ireland. The Minister stated earlier that this is an area about which he has concerns. Perhaps the Minister of State might respond comprehensively on that in his response.

Animal welfare extends not only to our greyhounds but to all our animals. In keeping with the theme of racing animals for profit, I echo the comments of Deputy O'Sullivan in regard to coursing hares. Just last week, I asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather Humphreys, to report on the monitoring of coursing trials around the country, whether breaches of trial rules had taken place in the last number of years and what the repercussions are for breach of the coursing clubs' trials rule. The Minister stated that hare course meetings are monitored as resources allow by conservation rangers of the National Parks and Wildlife Service of her Department. The Minister went on to state that due to a lack of resources, no monitoring whatsoever took place in 2015-16. My colleague also mentioned the abuse of a range of other beautiful animals, such as the mink.

Perhaps we need to look into the future and change the structure of agriculture, which has developed into an industrial system. When I was a child, we reared pigs, cattle and sheep on a different, much more sustainable system. This incredible industrial process, which currently produces 33% of our carbon emissions and involves the transporting of live animals with considerable cruelty to those animals, is something that we have to start moving away from. We have a wonderful land. We have the resources to practice a much more sustainable type of agriculture as well. I think we should move towards that.

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