Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

Senator Bradford touched on a very important point about the application. Section 8(6)(b) refers to whether a local authority "is of the opinion that the premises in respect of which the application concerned was made is not suitable for the operation of a dog breeding establishment." We do not know what the Minister means by "is not suitable", because we have not seen any technical specifications, standards and so on. The council officials who will be responsible for enforcing the Bill at this stage do not know what they would be required to enforce, because we have no detail on those standards. I take on board what Senator Dearey said, but if we do not get in as much buy-in as possible from people in the breeding industry, we will drive it underground, which is the last thing any of us want.

We want to expose the people who have been treating puppies badly. We want to eliminate puppy farms that are irresponsible, so we want a Bill that will work. This is a reasonable amendment to provide an all-encompassing role for the people involved in the industry. It gives the breeders reasonable time and gives the officials who will enforce inspections reasonable time to get to grips with the standards that will be expected. As of today, we do not know those standards, which is why we are tabling this amendment.