Ray Butler (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and I welcome this long-overdue Bill. I have been involved in the breeding of greyhounds and the greyhound industry all of my life. It is the best breeding industry we have in this country, and Irish greyhounds are raced all over the world. Between full-time and part-time trainers in the greyhound industry, approximately 10,000 to 10,500 people are involved countrywide.

Many tracks have closed down through the past five, ten or 15 years, which is sad. The bookmakers' afternoon greyhound service, BAGS, meetings are the new show in town, and they are a lifeline to tracks because they can get anything between €5,000, €8,000 and €10,000 per meeting for showing pictures. I worry about them, however, being overly favourable to or run by big bookmakers. I am not talking about the small man who comes in with a satchel but rather the big multinational companies that come in and throw out their rules and regulations about how many times a dog can run or what kind of greyhounds are running on the tracks. Lower-grade greyhounds are being kept to run these BAGS meetings and, in certain cases when one tries to look at the races and the race meetings, God himself would not come down and pick the winners. It is welcome as a lifeline but we should not let these multinational corporations come in and start running the industry. They are welcome, but there must have governance.

Although I did not welcome the sale of Harold's Cross, we have moved on. I welcome that there is extra money, that the debt will finally be paid off, and that we have €6 million to put into doing up Shelbourne Park, hopefully, because it needs a lick of paint and a restructuring. I would like to see money being spent on other tracks around the country, not least in Mullingar where there was a fire escape in the building which was up to standard a couple of years ago but when it applied for a late licence, the fire officer nearly closed down the whole place. They are now restricted to 120 or 150 people per meeting, which is sad and has a huge impact. The board has promised money but that money is in the clouds. I wish it would come down from the clouds to allow us get it up and running and get the job done in order that people can be attracted to the track again. It should have been done for this Christmas because the Christmas trade now takes up approximately 60% of the total turnover of the year. It is huge and I would have liked to see it being done before now.

Down through the years, I have noted that people who are employed in the industry get somewhat indoctrinated. It is as if they say that now they are in the job they will just go with the status quo. We need to push on and push out boundaries to get more people coming through the doors like in the good years of the Celtic tiger when people came through for charity meetings. We have lost that impetus of the charity meeting and we need to advertise it. My local track is Mullingar, and if one asked someone about that track in Trim, where I live, the majority of people would not even know about it even though it is only 30 minutes down the road. We should get people out there on the road in all areas, such as Munster and Leinster, advertising the greyhound industry and the tracks for charity meetings. Many people are stuck in offices for five or six days a week looking out the window when they could be telling schools, GAA clubs or various fundraising charity organisations that they have a product for sale, that they want the organisations to come, and that special offers will be made in order that the charities or organisations will benefit.

I welcome the governance in this Bill on doping and breeding, but the legislation on doping is not strong enough. Governance committees are set up but the fines do not fit the crime. Giving somebody a €500, €1,000 or €1,500 fine for doping dogs is not enough. Anyone found to be doping dogs should be struck out, gone and banned for life. On breeding and its governance, any unauthorised people who breed in back sheds and are caught doing so should also be banned, as should anybody responsible for any cruelty or suffering caused to the animal.

Some 90% of all the dogs which race in Great Britain are Irish-bred. The need for passports, clearance from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and injections such as rabies jabs to get one's dogs into England has increased the expenditure on breeding. This should be looked at so the breeder would get some little allowance for exporting his or her dog, as long as it is done correctly and to the right countries which have proper governance of greyhounds. I welcome that all dogs are microchipped but it is expensive to have an ordinary vet to get one's dog microchipped.