Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Whitmore for bringing this important issue forward. The control of live hare coursing, including the operation of individual coursing meetings and managing the use of hares for that activity, is carried out under the Greyhound Industry Act 1958. The statute is the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

My responsibility relates to the conservation status of the hare. While the regulation of hare coursing is not under my statutory control, licences are required by the Irish Coursing Club under the terms of the Wildlife Acts on behalf of their affiliated clubs to facilitate the netting and tagging of hares for closed park meetings. The annual licence to capture and tag hares for the 2019-2020 coursing season was issued by my Department on 9 August last year. The licences granted by my Department in such instances include a range of conditions relating to coursing hares that were designed to provide as much protection as possible to the conservation status of the hare.

The RHD2 virus, which affects rabbits and hares, was discovered in several rabbits and hares around the country during last summer. The scientific advice available to my Department at the time and following the issuing of annual licences indicated that the virus was highly contagious and easily spread. Moreover, the Department was advised that catching of hares in nets and keeping them in transportation boxes and confined areas like coursing hare parks could all be considered to increase the risk of disease spread. In these circumstances, given my Department's responsibility in respect of the conservation status of the Irish hare, it was decided to suspend the licences issued to the Irish Coursing Club on 9 August last year until a clearer understanding of the context, spread and implications of RHD2 was developed. A revised more restrictive licence was subsequently issued to the Irish Coursing Club in October 2019 effective to the end of February this year following discussions between the National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Irish Coursing Club on the impact of the virus. The restrictions included the condition that the capturing of hares and coursing activity was prohibited in areas within a 25 km radius of where wild rabbits or hares had tested positive for the virus. New zones were added on an ongoing basis as positive tests arose and in these new zones the capturing of hares was to cease immediately. Coursing would only be possible with already captured hares and where the hares were certified in writing by a veterinary surgeon as being healthy. Such hares would only be released back into the wild on foot of such certification. This impacted on a significant number of coursing events.

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