Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted that this Bill will now make it to Committee Stage. I thank the Minister for supporting the Bill and for allowing it through this Stage. I also thank Deputies Canney and Grealish for helping to bring the Bill this distance. I thank Deputies Donnelly and Cronin for their positive words in favour of animal welfare. This is one of the issues which very much unites everybody in here in that the relationships we have with our own pets are key and important ones.

It is also important that I put my own dog on the record. Rua is a 14-year-old cross between a red setter and a golden retriever. He is still going strong at that age. He runs the fields and the country roads and, as typical for a dog of his age, he is very laid back. He is henpecked by our three hens. They get a treat and he gets a clean, which is probably no harm for them. The cat is always wrecking his head on a daily basis as well.

I will finish with one story where I am reminded of a local artist in Navan, Patsy Reel, who some people may know. Patsy Reel had a lovely dog who lived in Ludlow Street in Navan. That dog used to travel three streets up the town by himself, go to a pedestrian crossing and wait for somebody to hit the lights so that he could cross the road. He would then go to the pet shop and bark outside it and the pet shop owner would throw him out a treat. At the end of the week Patsy Reel would go up to the pet shop and pay the tab himself. It was incredible.

Obviously, the relationship between families and pets is very important. It is fair to say that in that relationship, we owe a debt of gratitude to dogs and owe them a responsibility to ensure that they are protected and are treated humanely. Unfortunately, the reality is often very different. For some people, they only see pets and dogs as a source of big money and profit, and of enormous exploitation. Incredible damage is done to dogs on a daily basis, especially breeding animals, including injury, ill-health, lack of veterinary treatment when it is needed, no space at all to be the animal that it is, very poor diet, wet, cold and dirty conditions, and isolation. If we build a relationship with pets on the basis of that wrong, unjust and evil at the heart of it it is a sad reflection on the rest of society. It is important that this Bill plays a role in improving those conditions over the long term. Gabhaim buíochas leis na Comhaltaí go léir.

See this speech in context