Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

The answer lies in how we choose and train authorised officers and the code of standards by which they operate. Consider the case of somebody using the animal welfare helpline to inform the Department he has seen real evidence of severe cruelty in a house or garden down the road and that he wants an inspector to investigate. As far as I am concerned, this presents reasonable grounds for an inspector to knock on the householder's door, state there has been a complaint and request a discussion, as opposed to having to gather evidence whereby people with cameras would have to take photographs through hedges, for example. That is not what we want, either for animal welfare organisations, concerned citizens or farmers.

Some of the grouped amendments pertain to taking action to prevent disease outbreak. If there are reasonable grounds, but no evidence per se, to suspect a significant disease problem on a farm is being covered up or that bodies are being buried to cover-up acts of cruelty or starvation, based on the report of a farm worker, it ought to be possible to take some action quickly to prevent the spread of disease or extreme cruelty, as in the case of malnutrition. I want our officers to be able to make decisions early to deal with the problem. If they make a mistake, there needs to be a code of practice to deal with it. The decision-making process needs to be structured. Ultimately, it is a question of getting really good authorised officers, maintaining standards and training the officers to behave in a professional way, be it on the farm or other private or commercial property. This is what we will try to do. We would weaken the thrust of the legislation if we required all action to be based on evidence. The problem in the past was that one had to gather evidence before taking action, thus resulting in unnecessary and frustrating delays. If we do give the proposed powers to authorised officers, it is important that they operate according to a pretty strict code of standards.