John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

It raises an interesting issue because, as Senator Mullen might be aware, there are those who would argue that those who carry out the inspections should be veterinary experts and that perhaps they would have a different point of view than those laypersons who have an interest in animal welfare. They would have different perspectives. Therefore, if one had a provision of this type one might not go down the strictly veterinary route and one might have quite a subjective interpretation. The less subjective a Bill is and the less it is open to interpretation the better. I am very sympathetic to what Senator Mullen is saying, but as Minister I also have to be mindful of the robustness of legislation and therefore I am sticking to the wording as is.