Results 5,141-5,160 of 10,862 for speaker:Matt Carthy

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 and the Control of Dogs Act 1986: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: I mentioned on-the-spot fines, of which there were 1,069 in 2020. Of those fines, only 548 were paid. There were 82 prosecutions. Again, that number is substantially lower than in previous years. There were 411 in 2015 and 304 in 2016. Since then there has been a year-on-year reduction. Of the 82 prosecutions, there were only 20 convictions. Does the Department have a view on those...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 and the Control of Dogs Act 1986: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: What is the purpose of the Department's engagement with local authorities?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 and the Control of Dogs Act 1986: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: The legislation concerned - the Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 and the Control of Dogs Act - falls under the auspices of the Department with regard to the policy direction. Is that not right?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 and the Control of Dogs Act 1986: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: The Department engages with the local authorities three or four times a year. Has nobody ever asked the local authorities why the on-the-spot fines and prosecutions have been drastically reducing and why the fines paid and subsequent convictions from prosecutions are so low? Have those questions never arisen? Has the Department no view on any of those figures?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 and the Control of Dogs Act 1986: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: The difficulty with that is that the one place the statistics are consistent is in the portion of fines paid and prosecutions that lead to convictions. Those percentages are very consistent. Ms Gavaghan says that part of the approach is to ensure standardisation across all local authorities. How does the Department do that if it does not discuss the number of fines issued, the number of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 and the Control of Dogs Act 1986: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: Without having a view on the statistics.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 and the Control of Dogs Act 1986: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: Three of the witnesses have answered this question and I am still not clear on the role of the Department. If, in a given year, in a local authority there are no on-the-spot fines issued, no fines paid, no prosecutions and therefore no convictions, does anyone pick up the phone to the local authority to ask what is going on? Does the Department simply assume this is an operational matter...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 and the Control of Dogs Act 1986: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: I will ask the question a different way. The programme for Government contains a commitment to "Ensure robust and consistent enforcement of the Dog Breeding Establishments Act." Who is responsible for the delivery of that action?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 and the Control of Dogs Act 1986: Discussion (25 May 2022)

Matt Carthy: We might have identified a problem that I hope the Department will commit to addressing. The Department has committed to ensuring robust and consistent enforcement of this Act but is not making direct interventions when there is clearly not consistency in how it is being implemented in different parts of the country. Will the witnesses accept that perhaps there is a need for greater...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing in Ireland and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Anti-doping Programme: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Matt Carthy: I thank our guests for attending. Is there any particular reason the CEO of the HRI is not here?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing in Ireland and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Anti-doping Programme: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Matt Carthy: I am aware of that. However, is there any particular reason she is not attending this meeting?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing in Ireland and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Anti-doping Programme: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Matt Carthy: I take it the HRI's opening statement has been cleared with the CEO?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing in Ireland and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Anti-doping Programme: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Matt Carthy: In what is, I must say, a very short opening statement, the HRI states that its representatives "are here today principally to focus on the findings of this committee from its deliberations last year and to report to it on our progress with implementation of those recommendations." It further states: "We are satisfied that progress has been made on all fronts." Does Mr. Osborne stand over...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing in Ireland and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Anti-doping Programme: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Matt Carthy: I have a few questions for the representatives of the Department and the IHRB. I can come back to Mr. Osborne, if he wants to go through the recommendations. To be helpful, I might reference some of the recommendations that I am talking about. Recommendation No. 4 states that the committee believes an independent review of the horse racing industry by an outside body is needed to ensure...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing in Ireland and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Anti-doping Programme: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Matt Carthy: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing in Ireland and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Anti-doping Programme: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Matt Carthy: It is contained in appendix 1.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing in Ireland and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Anti-doping Programme: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Matt Carthy: Recommendation No. 4 is an important one. I will not go through all of the recommendations made by the committee individually, just those that I consider to be the important ones. I am interested in hearing whether the Department plans to implement that recommendation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing in Ireland and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Anti-doping Programme: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Matt Carthy: Mr. Sheahan believes recommendation No. 4 was implemented through the appointment by the board of the IHRB of an esteemed individual - there is no question of that - to conduct an assessment without ever setting foot in Ireland.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing in Ireland and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Anti-doping Programme: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Matt Carthy: Okay. That is interesting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse Racing in Ireland and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Anti-doping Programme: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Matt Carthy: Okay. I must say, as one of the many members who compiled the report, that it is not what we envisaged when we stated that "an independent review of the horse racing industry by an outside body is needed to ensure that Ireland’s procedures match international best practices." On the first few recommendations of the report, there was a lot of discussion of the make-up of the IHRB,...