Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This is less of a speech than a plea and some questions and the plea would be that the Government delays the XL bully dogs ban because to implement it in the outlined timeline would be very dangerous. We are 12 days from the beginning of the XL bully dogs ban and not one local authority has received the full regulations; not one. They have not been sent them or emailed them. They have not seen them. We seem to be referencing the UK and Northern Ireland XL bully dog ban in the implementation of this law when it comes to characteristics but in lots of other ways we are not copying them at all.

We have placed a huge administrative and resource burden on local authorities but have only allocated €2 million to them for an ongoing and very serious cost. It is a vanishingly small amount. There is no clear outline of how the increased expenditure on administration and resources will be borne by the local authorities so I have some questions. Where local authorities will waive the surrender fee for a dog, which is more than €100 in most cases, will the Department reimburse them for that? Is the Minister aware that local authorities, in the absence of guidance from the Department, have been interpreting this as relevant to all restricted breeds, which means the average German shepherd family dog could be deemed as unsuitable for rehoming and out down with no options? There are no second chances here.

The key area I am genuinely worried about is that there is no meaningful involvement by the Garda in this process. Dog wardens will be given a point of contact but there is no guidance given either to the dog warden, the local authority or the gardaí themselves about what the responsibility of the Garda is. If someone came to my home and tried to take my beloved dog, who a lot of people would feel is like their family member, he or she would have quite the time of it and I am genuinely worried for people - that our local authority workers will be in danger.

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