Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I reiterate the comments made by other Senators on both sides of the House. As somebody who has visited greyhound tracks at home and abroad, I can attest to the entertainment provided by racing. We must be careful about any law that could potentially damage the economic viability of the industry. I fully recognise we must ensure animal rights remain the priority in legislation. Having also listened to Members on the Government side, it is clear the Minister has failed to demonstrate why the 1958 Act does not cover animal rights in sufficient detail and he has failed to convince the House it is right to enact this legislation and reject these amendments. We have spent three days debating this issue. We have spent longer on this section than we did on many sections of the NAMA legislation. The Minister of State will have spoken to the Minister before he came to the House. We made our concerns clear to the Minister last week about double regulation of the industry. He has yet to come back to us with sufficient reasons for this and, because of that, we have no option but to vote in favour of the amendment and against the Bill.