Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I again thank Deputy Verona Murphy and Deputy Canney for co-signing the Bill and for submitting it to the lottery. It would not have made it to this Stage if not for that important help. This is a very important issue to many people around the country. Legislation on animal welfare needs to be strengthened. We need to strengthen regulations to protect animals in this country, especially around puppy farms. You can have all the laws you like if you do not have the enforcement to implement them and make sure that law sticks. There is a significant weakness in that enforcement. I recognise that the Minister of State has a special interest and has made a special effort in this area. We also need proper regulation around dangerous breeds of dogs. I cannot imagine there is a town or village in the country that does not regularly see dangerous breeds operating outside of the law. The law is broken day in, day out, in that area. It will not be long until someone is killed, unless there is proper enforcement.

We need a far more holistic view of the development of animal welfare legislation. It should not be done through the smallest parties in the Dáil tabling legislation. We all have a responsibility for pets and animals. It should be under the one Department. Right now, it is between a number of stools departmentally and it is falling between those stools, as far as I can see. We need to make sure the charities and experts have a big input into this.

I am not a fan of mandatory minimum sentences either but we need to have some level of discussion around this. On many occasions we hear on the television or the radio about grievous crimes being committed and people walking away from them with suspended sentences. I will just give a couple of examples. Ireland is a place where a man can confess to the rape of a woman and still serve no time in prison. Many people walk away with suspended sentences for sexual assault in this State. One headline I looked at a while ago reads "Suspended sentence for man who broke into woman's home and sexually assaulted her in bed". There are suspended sentences for possession of child pornography. While we want leeway for judges to be able to make informed decisions, taking all the issues into consideration when developing a sentence, we must also realise that at times we do not have consistency in the delivery of sentencing. We need to make sure we impose a serious deterrent for what is a grievous wrong.

Ní ionann madra ná peata agus teilifís ná guthán, agus níor cheart go mbeadh an pionós céanna ann don dá rud. De ghnáth, bíonn peata mar bhall lárnach de chlann. Is cara iontach é madra do pháiste agus an páiste ag fás agus ag forbairt. Is comhluadar iontach é madra do sheanduine agus cabhraíonn sé le cúrsaí slándála chomh maith. Ba cheart dúinne a bheith ag cur béim agus luach níos mó ar pheataí sa dlí ná ar rudaí cosúil le teilifís nó guthán.

Guím gach rath ar gach uile dhuine don Nollaig atá le teacht.

I wish everybody a very happy Christmas. I know people are getting to the finish line this evening and are probably wrecked. It has been a busy and important year in many respects. I thank all the men and women who work to ensure this Parliament functions properly. An enormous amount of work is done by very talented people and I hope they get some level of a break and a rest to re-energise over the Christmas holidays.

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