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

One other aspect brings this out into the open. There was a coursing meeting last January at Seven Houses in County Kilkenny. The coursers reported that four hares were confirmed by the vet as dying of natural causes but the ranger from the National Parks and Wildlife Service said four hares died of injuries received after being hit by greyhounds. The vet reported that six hares were examined for injuries, that none was confirmed injured, none was euthanised, none died from injuries and there was no post mortem. The vet's name was redacted.

There are serious questions for the monitoring committee. Video footage from the coursing event showed coursing officials running across the field pulling a hare from dogs before carrying off the doomed hare to whatever was going to happen to it. The Minister and I do not agree on live hare coursing but at the very least we could agree on the need for transparency at meetings and truthfulness about what exactly is happening. Earlier, the Minister said there could be no compromise on animal welfare but there is compromise in this instance in the case of hares.

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