Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have two points to put to the Leader, the first of which concerns the ISPCA. The ISPCA, which is involved in six to eight dog pounds in the country, is withdrawing from those. I believe it has already withdrawn from Offaly and Roscommon, and is now withdrawing from Kilkenny. That has serious implications. I ask that the Leader would write to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to request it to ensure that the funding to run these pounds remains in place through the county councils. We discussed the Animal Health and Welfare Bill in this House for numerous hours and one of the issues that arose was the neglect of dogs. If dogs are being neglected and we do not have the ISPCA involved, we will have a serious problem. Farmers will have a serious problem also because ewes are being put in lamb at this time of the year and if dog worrying occurs, the lamb crop will be affected. It is important that the funding for these dog pounds continues to be made available.

The other matter concerns what we saw over the weekend. I ask the Members opposite for their views. I heard the views of Senator O'Sullivan but I would be interested to hear the views of Senator MacSharry. He is not present but I presume Senator Wilson, as acting leader of the Opposition or Fianna Fáil, will pass on the message. I believe Senator MacSharry attended the protest last night in Sligo during which the Taoiseach's car was stopped entering a hotel. When we came into Government we had to sort out this country and one of the jobs we did was to get rid of Garda drivers at a saving of €6 million. We saw at the weekend the Tánaiste imprisoned in her car for three hours, the Taoiseach stopped from entering a hotel to attend a Fine Gael meeting, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, being intimidated in his own town of Limerick, and the Minister, Deputy Kelly, receiving a bomb threat to his office.

Are we coming to a stage at which we must reintroduce Garda drivers for the safety of Ministers, because no Minister deserves what has happened to them over the weekend? I have a request for Members opposite with regard to Senator MacSharry, whose antics Members saw in this Chamber last week in the disruption of the Irish Water debate. It appeared to me that he was more into intimidation than into peaceful protests and he hijacked the debates in the Chamber. He should make a statement in the House with regard to his views on protests, whether peaceful or by intimidation, which appears to be what is happening.