Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am aware that the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, officers work very hard. I am friendly with law enforcement officers who have an interest in animal welfare issues who have been monitoring some of this activity online. Through them, I am aware that this appalling barbarity is perpetuated in almost every county in Ireland. Foxes are being dug out and online footage is being posted of grown men forcing animals out of burrows while they watch and record dogs viciously mauling them apart in the name of sport. This gratuitous violence is then played online. The situation is now beyond critical, particularly when improvements in animal welfare are under way in the UK, which puts us in danger of becoming a haven for this type of barbarity and a destination for tourism in this illegal activity, I do not like to use the word "sport", because that is not what it is. It is seriously sick.

Will the Minister consider a joint task force featuring some members of the NPWS and of An Garda Síochána because there are criminal elements involved in this and it is too dangerous for officers of the NPWS to do the job on their own?

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