Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent)

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Coveney, to the House and congratulate him and his officials on the introduction of this detailed Bill, which updates existing legislation. It is long overdue.

We are all aware that we are in a space where thankfully commercial agribusiness has become central to our growth and survival. It is an area of great hope for our future. While the balance achieved by the Minister in this legislation is welcomed it is important we do not bury people in bureaucracy while seeking to put in place controls in respect of animals.

I attended this morning's meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Natural Resources and Agriculture. None of us, including the Minister, would want to live in an Ireland which had large factory farms. We love our Ireland of small farms and hedgerows and are managing to be commercial, productive and grow our exports. I never want to be in an Ireland where family farms are a thing of the past. To this end, I ask that the Minister take a look at a 94 minute documentary, which he will enjoy, entitled "Food Inc.", which is an American documentary made in 2008. It is an incredibly unflattering documentary in regard to the American corporate controlled food industry. It shows how animals are raised, handled, altered, transported, sold and killed and the appalling conditions in which they are kept. I raise this by way of highlighting how quickly things can happen. For example, the Chinese could buy five or six farms in a county following which we could end up with a farm the size of County Kildare. I know I am dreaming. However, it could happen and has happened in New Zealand.

The documentary shows chickens hanging like pieces of laundry on conveyor cables above fast moving assembly lines waiting to be dipped into boiling oil and beautiful cows standing knee-high in their own faeces being fed genetically modified grain so as to be fattened as speedily as possible in order to ensure the greatest commercial return for their owners. This is happening on large farms. The Minister will be aware of what this does in environmental terms to surrounding areas. I ask that the Minister and his officials view that documentary, which I think they will enjoy. They have got a lot wrong in America. I hope the Minister, having viewed that documentary, will be encouraged to review this legislation. If we get this right, all of the brilliant work done by him, Bord Bia and the previous Government, will ensure Ireland remains a green island.

As I stated earlier, Ireland is the food island with one of the greatest food safety records in the world. This Bill will help to increase that image. I am not involved in marketing. The Minister is in regular contact with Bord Bia, representatives of which I met recently at Enterprise Ireland's Food Works programme on the trends in this area from consumers around the world. I regret to inform the Minister Ireland is not involved as it is an old story in this regard. Younger people are interested in from where they food comes and how it is produced. Younger people are interested in where their food comes from and how it is produced. They are also interested in eco-sustainability. We know all businesses must be corporately responsible. All of this ties into this area of animal welfare, how we present ourselves as a country and how we do business. I hope I am making sense because I am a little bit all over the place.

I have not read every sentence in the Bill but I ask the Minister to ensure circuses can no longer have animals. Officers or agents of the Department and the Garda should prosecute farmers who have ragwort on their premises. In case any Members do not know, horses who eat ragwort will have a very slow and painful death. It affects their livers. I drive through counties all the time and I was driving up from Limerick yesterday and saw ragwort coming up even though there were horses on the land. I do not know whether it is ignorance. I know I am picking out one animal and should not do so because this is a general Bill but can we legislate so that anyone who keeps horses cannot have ragwort on their land.

In regard to coursing and hares, an area which causes much political unrest, this is left a little soft in the legislation. Section 12(12) refers to hares who are injured, mutilated or an exhausted condition and to hares who are coursed without reasonable chance of escape. The same applies to the foxes even though foxes can be terrible and have killed all my chickens on a few occasions. We should tighten up the legislation a little and provide greater clarity in this area.