Results 861-880 of 904 for speaker:Ray Butler

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2018)

Ray Butler: I have been involved in the greyhound industry all my life and have been an owner and a breeder for the past 25 or 26 years. The amendment which proposes to have representatives of greyhound owners and breeders on the board is all over the place.

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2018)

Ray Butler: It is all over the place. Nobody seems to know what is going on or who is chair of this or that group.There are different organisations and groups, and there is bickering and fighting going on. It is all over the place. Therefore, we cannot approve this. The industry and many of the associations inside the greyhound industry have to take a look at themselves. I saw people being nominated...

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2018)

Ray Butler: I thank the Senator.

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (23 Oct 2018)

Ray Butler: We all have no problem with dogs in other jurisdictions being banned from racing if they have been found to have drugs in their system. A dog would not be allowed to run in Manchester one week and run the following week in Ireland because the dog would have to undertake a clearance trial. A dog, bar it was an open class dog, would be banned automatically. Dogs are banned for other reasons....

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: I come from a background and in greyhounds, which have been in my family all my life. I have seen dramatic changes in the ways greyhounds are exported from Ireland. For the past four to five years, they must be microchipped, have a passport and receive injections for rabies and various illnesses before export. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine also has to give a passport...

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: We have come a long way in the past three or four years with the microchipping of dogs and passports. We must be very careful, however, not to impose additional expenses on breeders of greyhounds. A little microchip that goes into a dog’s back costs 50 cent or €1 at most. When one goes to the control steward and asks him to microchip a dog, it might cost €25.If there...

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: What has happened is fantastic. I know there is a lot more to do, but what we are doing is positive and going in the right direction.

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: To come back in on what Senator Ruane said about passports, it is not really the same as a passport for a human being. It includes information on ear markings, the colour of the dog and so on. When a vet gives a dog injections, including for rabies, that is written in the passport which is passed on, but it is the microchip that really holds the secret to it all.

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: They are checked.

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: There is. That is how we know that 85% were exported to England.

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: The problem arises when they move further afield.

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: It is called a passport, but it does not really serve the same purpose as a passport for a human being, as we understand it. It does not contain much more than what is on the microchip. Really, it is just more bureaucracy.

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: There are two different groups in the greyhound world. We have the Irish Coursing Club and the Irish Greyhound Board. In the 1980s and 1990s, if people wanted to register their names as owners or if they wanted to register a greyhound they had to be a member of the Irish Coursing Club and have a membership card. This is how it ended up with the registration of litters and this has...

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: Senator Norris would last forever. There are minuses and pluses with these centres but the plus side is that much of the frozen semen coming in has made it cheaper in certain cases to get dogs of the likes of Top Honcho and Australian dogs such Frightful Flash. In certain centres the frozen semen was a quarter of the price when the stud dog was alive. It has made it cheaper for the...

Seanad: Greyhound Racing Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: Next Thursday.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (15 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: That was out of order.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: Several weeks ago, the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, opened a new 12-bed unit at St. Joseph's community nursing unit in Trim. We have a terrible shortage of respite care beds in Meath, with only 15 in the county which are scattered all over the place. Compared with Dublin, which has hundreds of respite care beds, Trim has a great opportunity with St. Joseph's community nursing unit...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: Well said, Senator Norris.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: The former HSE boss-----

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Nov 2018)

Ray Butler: -----stated in an article in the Meath Chronicletwo weeks ago that the accident and emergency services downgrade in Navan never happened and that he regretted this. My late mother spent a lot of time in the accident and emergency department in 2013 and 2014 when she was sick. I saw at first hand why the reconfiguration did not happen and I witnessed the downgrading of the accident and...