Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. I note the Minister of State has been sent in by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and that she is reading from his script. Organisations such as PAWS Animal Rescue throughout the country are struggling big time with funding. As I said, it is already €55,000 in debt to vets after receiving its grants. The Minister of State referred to the Irish Retired Greyhound Trust. Speaking to vets, it is clear that the meagre funding provided for such procedures is not worth the amount of paperwork required. For vets to continue to provide the level of documentation required would cost the organisation more than the value of the funds contributed towards the procedure in question.

It is easy to say that that funding is being provided but, as I said, we are a couple of weeks away from Christmas. In January and February, we will see another increase in unwanted pets which were bought as Christmas presents and have been rejected afterwards. If centres such as PAWS Rescue Centre have already closed their doors, what will things be like come February, March and April? I appreciate the Minister will provide animal welfare grants on 8 December. I remind him that he stood before many small animal welfare groups in early October and told them how much he respected their work. Unfortunately, he did not respect them enough to send out invitations to more than just a few of them to attend the announcement on 8 December. Perhaps this might be an oversight on the part of the Department but the Minister has plenty of time to send out invitations to some of the smaller groups.

I appreciate that the Minister of State has come to the House to answer some of my questions. I ask that she relay to the Minister some of the concerns I have raised, which need to addressed quickly. Organisations such as PAWS Animal Rescue, which is already €55,000 in debt, also need to be assisted.

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