Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Pass the buck to another Department. Around the kitchen and mind the dresser. What was the name of the famous man from "Céilí House"? The Acting Chairman, Deputy Durkan, is here longer than I am and he will remember him. It was Kieran Hanrahan. Around the house and mind the dresser. Around the country and mind the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Garda Síochána, the county council and the health authority. Why does the Government with all its Departments and resources not bring forward robust legislation and deal with this and not come into the House and rubbish this Bill and say that it is a tradition? It is not a tradition. The Travellers' affinity with horses is a long-standing tradition. I have fond memories of the sweep coming, Mr. O'Connor and his wife with the mule drawing the bow top wagon and a donkey at the back. There was engagement between the people and families and they made lovely coal scuttles. When I built the house in 1984 I bought a coal scuttle from him and it is still around. The craftsmanship that was in that is unbelievable.

We can work on this together, we can deal with it and we can get it off track. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, who, like the Acting Chairman, is from the plains of Kildare, although I would claim that we have more racing prowess in Tipperary than ye have and that can be seen on the racetracks, to engage with Horse Racing Ireland, the different tracks and many under-utilised race courses to see if days can be organised. People phoned me from Galway to tell me that sulky racing cannot go on a track. I do not know the reasoning for that and I will not know until I meet him, but I think it is much safer and easier for any animal.

Greyhounds are able to run on a sand surface. It cannot be good to have horses running on a tar road with no shoes. If one asked any of us to run from here to Kildare, we would have fairly sore limbs, and ankles as well, but the animals are racing at speed. Animal cruelty is involved here too. I salute the animal refuges. It not fair that they have to pick up the tabs. The Minister is probably all ready to send out the letters that go out every year before Christmas, throwing slops of funding to animal rescue. It is very much needed. They operate on a shoe string and do tremendous work and we need to support them. There are huge cruelty issues and huge anomalies. There is no point in saying it was raised 43 years ago by Deputy Lipper; I raised it two years ago and I am raising it again. Will we do something about it, please? I am surprised that no Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backbenchers or no Labour Party or Social Democrat Deputies are interested in this. A few weeks ago, the Social Democrats were here trying to ban and destroy our vital greyhound industry. This is going on under our noses and we want to turn a blind eye to it and want to turn backwards and blindfold ourselves when serious incidents are taking place. It is a serious threat to human safety. I am no killjoy. I want to work with people. I would love to have an all-party committee that would work with people. I know we have a committee dealing with Traveller issues but this is an issue that should be dealt with. It could be very enjoyable. It could bring some revenue to the Department of Finance and the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, as it does in other countries. We are so insular here, we will not look abroad to see best practice. This is going on in many constituencies and Deputies are getting calls about it but, for whatever reason, they do not want to talk about it. Talk about sweeping things under the carpet - it must be dealt with.

I am quite appalled at the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and the Minister of State coming in here this evening and just rubbishing the Bill. I am not saying it is perfect. They can take the Bill, embrace it, send it forward for scrutiny and discuss it at the different committees - agriculture, transport or maybe health - and try to put a formula together so that we can work together to improve it. I received about 60 WhatsApp messages in an hour this evening from sulky owners and racers all over the country. They are interested. They were worried in case I was trying to do something that I was not. I am interested in working with them. I got threatened the last time, for what it is worth. I hope it will not happen this time that I will be shot in Dublin for bringing up this issue. We cannot have these kinds of threats in a modern democracy. We cannot be all afraid to deal with it because the vast majority of people involved, and I know many of them, are 100%, but there is a rogue element. The people who spoke to me today accept that and that it must be weeded out. It is time that we grasped the nettle. The Government is grasping at so many things that are nice and dandy, policies that it thinks will go down well with the media. It does research and polls to know what the people want; the people want their children to be safe in their cars when they are bringing them to school or college. A husband wants to know that when his wife, a pregnant woman, is coming home from work that she will not be forced off the road and put upside down into a field when the whole road is taken over. Does the Government expect gardaí where two are on duty in a station like Cahir to go out and stop a race on the old N8 which is used regularly with maybe 30 or 40 sulkies and maybe a couple of hundred people, vans and cars? It is mayhem. There is no point ignoring it, the Government knows the problem is there. We must try to deal with it.

I know that the horse project with which Jonathan Irwin is involved in the prison is very important. Initiatives exist, but they are individual efforts. Ní neart go cur le chéile. We need to make an effort together in this Parliament. It is our duty to protect the public, animal welfare and the gardaí, and to give the gardaí plenty of support and the powers, along with the departmental officials. It is also necessary that we protect the county council officials and the horse wardens, and whomever else. We badly need a horse warden in Tipperary. We are just scratching around the surface and just tinkering around with it, pardon the pun. We are fooling ourselves to think that it is not necessary to deal with this issue.

The new Minister, Deputy McConalogue, comes from Donegal, where this might not be happening, but he should know better than to come in here and read out that kind of spiel and flatly refuse to discuss this. I hope we will have a go at this again and work together with the people who are involved. Deputy Gino Kenny has been involved with his group. I would like to go and see that harness track someday with him. I said I would do that before. I would like to do that because I like to learn as well. It is a bad day when we do not learn something.

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