Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

My views are as they were. The whole thrust of this Bill is to give authorised officers the capacity to act when they have reasonable grounds to suspect cruelty is going on and there is an animal welfare issue or there may be a risk of disease spread in an establishment. They will be able to go in and attempt to nip it in the bud or address it at an early stage instead of having to build a book of evidence around the welfare issue or disease control issue. In section 38, to which amendments Nos. 46 and 47 apply, we seek to allow authorised officers to act and to enter a premises when they have reasonable grounds to suspect a series of things might or might not be happening. The other provision relates to the risk of disease or the spread of disease or the application of inappropriate medication or hormones to animals. An authorised officer will be able to act at an early stage, and that is a welcome development.

It is important to point out we are not giving excessive powers to authorised officers. Current legislation gives more power to authorised officers in terms of stopping vehicles and searching people. Neither of those things is allowed in this legislation. In case people think we are going over the top, we are not. Authorised officers are limited in what they can do. The Attorney General's office has looked at this carefully and has been restrictive in some areas. It allows authorised officers to enter a premises and undertake a search or make an investigation if they have reasonable grounds for doing so. If we required authorised officers to gather a lot of evidence beforehand, the effectiveness of their actions would not be as strong.