Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute on behalf of the Labour Party to the debate. The Bill is urgently required to deal with a number of significant and relevant issues that arose over the last years. The Bill itself has been a long time in gestation.

The Labour Party fully supports the speedy implementation of this important legislation. We may table amendments on Committee Stage to strengthen it in sections relating to sanctions, appeals structures and so on. We will certainly consider that.

The greyhound industry will be strengthened by the passage of the Bill. If the industry does not take it on board, it will be in the last chance saloon. It is an important opportunity for the industry to put an appropriate regime in place and to remove any cloud that hangs over it. As Deputy O'Keeffe has said, it is an important rural industry that is spread right throughout the regions. People were taken aback that virtually no sanctions were in place, and where there were, people may just have walked free. That removes the element of fairness and people competing on a level paying pitch. All people want is that if a poor person runs a greyhound on its merits, it is not running against a greyhound whose owner has pepped it. That is not running on merits and that is not fair play. It is not a level playing pitch and it undermines people's belief in the industry.

We must also remember that the industry gets €17 million from the taxpayer. Money is scarce and the industry has to appreciate that. I am also glad that an appropriate fund is being provided for rehoming retired greyhounds. This issue was the subject of one of the larger submissions we had during the detailed examination that was carried out. When the Bill was in the Seanad, the Minister inserted such a provision into section 29(1)(c) and we welcome that.

As far back as April 2017, the Bill was subjected to pre-legislative scrutiny at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine when that committee examined the general scheme. That was almost two years ago. The committee, including Deputies Martin Kenny, Cahill and O'Keeffe, devoted considerable time to reviewing same in a diligent fashion, and made submissions with the aim of improving the overall objective of the Bill. There is nothing there that cannot be improved further or refined.

It has always been difficult to ascertain precisely the numbers of people employed in jobs in the greyhound industry. In 2017, the economist, Jim Power, estimated it as 5,000, with 300 people directly employed. That was a charitable guesstimate. Let us be clear that there is nothing proven about that figure but there are 12,000 or 13,000 people spread throughout the State, some of whom generate an economic benefit here and there. There are at least 7,000 greyhound owners throughout the country because anybody can have a greyhound.I used to have a greyhound many years ago but I would not be such a great person to be known as a greyhound owner. A few of us lads had him from the trainer Francie Murray, who is a top class trainer, but I knew very little and our greyhound was not very successful anyhow.

See this speech in context