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

My first question is why the Minister of State, the IGB, and the Department had to wait for this programme to air. We were telling them all this already. Italy and France have banned the export of their dogs to countries like China, the US and Australia, and commercial airlines will not take greyhounds if they know that is where they are going.

I refer again to coursing. My Bill to ban live hare coursing was defeated, but it was based on the same evidence of what is going on that we saw on "Prime Time Investigates" the other night. We have seen appalling injuries inflicted on hares as well. It was said that it was better to have coursing licensed, but we all knew there was unlicensed stuff going on and the programme also noted that a number of people from the licensed coursing clubs were attending those meetings. There was a big hoo-ha about the Government funding granted to the FAI and Repak, but why is the same standard not being applied to the IGB and the amount of funding it is getting? The funding should be withheld until these particular issues are addressed. We are not dealing with it because they are animals. The IGB was aware that injured dogs were being forced to run in races and were being given morphine so they could run. This industry is an absolute disgrace.

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