Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

I move:

That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 to ban the hunting of a fox or foxes; and to provide for related matters.

I understand we have an unprecedented situation where a Deputy will be opposing this Bill, but I will come back to it later. With fox hunting banned in England, Scotland and Wales, Ireland has become an outlier. In fact, it is ironic that the colonial powers that introduced fox hunting into this country have banned it and yet it is still retained here as a relic. In 1998, a code of conduct was introduced for fox hunting packs, approved by the Minister. It has become a farcical situation. It eliminated none of the cruelty that makes fox hunting one of Ireland's most inhumane activities. Foxes are still dug out of the ground and tracked by trained terriers. Foxes are still chased by packs of dogs, sometimes for hours, and torn apart when caught. If a domestic animal were treated in this way, there would be an outcry.

A Red C poll found that 77% of the population want fox hunting banned. By the way, this is not an urban versus rural issue, as some may try to claim, because 74% of people in rural areas also thought fox hunting should be banned. It is not a major activity undertaken by a lot of people in rural areas. Part of the rural opposition comes from farmers themselves who have hunts going over their lands without permission, causing them problems and, according to one person, causing them €6,000 in damage. Country pursuits that could replace fox hunting would include drag hunting, for example. This is something that could be done.

My Bill aims to amend the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013, which has an exemption for hunting in section 12. It states that a person should not do anything to "cause or permit anything to be done to an animal that causes unnecessary suffering ... or endanger[s] the health or welfare of ... an animal" or is carried out recklessly. All those things obviously apply to fox hunting. We now need to add into this section that fox hunting is an illegal, unlawful activity. This is what this legislation aims to do. It also brings in trail hunting, snaring and the trapping of foxes because these have proved to be loopholes in the UK.

I believe fox hunting is a cruel and inhumane so-called blood sport. It clearly causes unnecessary suffering.

Packs of dogs chasing after a fox relentlessly is obviously a very stressful and unnatural situation.

Fox hunting has been banned for over two decades in Britain. I fail to understand why anyone would defend it here. The fox is a mammal native to Ireland and is part of Ireland's biodiversity. Fox hunting is of no benefit to anybody. Foxes are the last wild dog in Ireland and they should be protected. We need to put it up to TDs to stand up and do that.

According to experts, foxes should live to the age of ten but many only live to age of two. We should be protecting foxes from hunting which is only one of the threats to them. Many arguments are put up about fox hunting and they are spurious. For example, it is said that we need to keep down the fox population. When fox hunting was banned in Britain, it had no impact on the fox population. The number of foxes did not suddenly increase at all so it is a spurious argument. Foxes naturally control their own environment and they also control rodent and rabbit populations which cost farmers a lot of money as well. They can actually save farmers money, in particular arable farmers who suffer a lot from the rabbit population.

Hunting in the UK has not led, as has been said, to a massive increase in foxes, neither would shooting be any less, which is often something that is put forward. Both are actually carried out together.

I will finish on the proposal to oppose this motion. It is actually unprecedented for a TD to stand up and try to prevent a Bill from reaching Second Stage for debate. I have introduced Bills on repeal which people did not agree with; they were always allowed to go to Second Stage. I have introduced many controversial things, as have other TDs, and I have never stopped to Bill from going to Second Stage. I have been told to put on the big-girl pants and allow debate, but here we have a stifling of the freedom of debate and freedom of speech. I ask TDs and the Government to reject the call to stop the Bill progressing.

See this speech in context