Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cairns and the Social Democrats for tabling this motion, which seeks to waive the increased funding of €2.4 million due to be given to the greyhound industry, to incrementally refocus greyhound racing funding on the welfare of dogs impacted by the breeding and racing associated with the industry and work towards the gradual phasing out of State support for the greyhound industry by 2025.

A reality check is needed here. Attendance at greyhound tracks around Ireland fell by a massive 15,900 in the first two months of 2020 according to an economic report commissioned by the IGB. The Indecon report, published earlier this month, shows that more and more people are turning their backs on cruel greyhound racing and are staying away from the tracks. Attendances plummeted by more than 50% in the past decade and the downward trend has continued into 2020. In January and February, respectively, numbers dropped by 7,200 or 30% and 8,600 or 28% compared to the same period in 2019. The authors of the report predict that the greyhound industry is likely to experience a continued decline in attendance levels and that this decline will accelerate. As I said, the greyhound racing industry has witnessed a significant decline in attendance over the past decade. The report outlines that 1.1 million attended races in 2008 but this had fallen by 55% to just over 500,000 by 2018. It adds that a further negative impact was seen in 2019 that was likely to exacerbate the pre-existing long-term decline and that the latest attendance figures for January and February of this year show that this decline has continued.

A breakdown of the figures shows that the IGB's Dublin track at Shelbourne Park sustained a massive 36% drop in attendance in January 2020 compared to the same month last year. Attendance continued to fall at Shelbourne Park in February when it was down by 41% from 8,900 to 5,200. The track has seen twice-weekly protests since the broadcasting of the "RTÉ Investigates: Greyhounds Running for their Lives" documentary which led to nationwide boycotts of greyhound racing and several companies disassociating themselves from the so-called sport.

Shelbourne Park is one of the worst tracks in Ireland for greyhound injuries and deaths. At least 178 greyhounds have suffered injuries and 43 have been killed by a track vet at the stadium over the past five years alone, as sickening IGB statistics show. Among the victims was a greyhound that collapsed after a race in August 2019 and died of a heart attack and another that was carried away bleeding with a leg bone popped out.

The IGB brought the activists who have been campaigning at Shelbourne Park to stop the so-called sport to the High Court in January 2020 by issuing nasty, threatening flyers around Ringsend, supposedly signed by the activists. This backfired badly on the IGB. It cost the board €30,000 to get the activists into the High Court and more than €300,000 in expenses, but the activists won. It is important to register that fact.

The IGB's tracks outside Dublin experienced a 21% drop in attendance in January and February, while attendance at privately-owned tracks plunged by 43% in January and 20% in February. This is a dying trade. People are rejecting it and are not attending races, and it is going to decline even more in the future. This is not a sport about loving dogs. It is about putting a dog into a stadium where it could get badly injured and die.

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