Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is right. Last Monday week I visited an animal shelter in Tipperary on my way back from a meeting of the Atlantic Economic Corridor, AEC, task force in Tralee. When one meets people who care for animals one realises what is happening. It was a first-time experience for me, even though I am from rural Ireland where we love our dogs and our pets in general. The legislation is being reviewed and the guidelines came in on 1 January.

Many comments were received by the Department during the consultation process but could not be addressed within the guidelines. The comments necessitate that my Department look at the legislation and that is what we are doing at the moment. The Department will consider the submissions as it looks at the legislation. Many respondents suggested changing the definition of a dog breeding establishment to refer to three, rather than six, breeding bitches while others said the current definition covered hunt clubs and other things, which may not be appropriate, and non-compliance was mentioned by others. There has been a plethora of submissions, which are very good and very important and which we would not have been able to cover in the guidelines. We hope the legislation process will be ready to be brought to the Chamber before the end of 2019.

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