Ray Butler (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have come a long way in the past three or four years with the microchipping of dogs and passports. We must be very careful, however, not to impose additional expenses on breeders of greyhounds. A little microchip that goes into a dog’s back costs 50 cent or €1 at most. When one goes to the control steward and asks him to microchip a dog, it might cost €25.If there are eight dogs in a litter, it costs €200. I fear that breeders or people rearing greyhounds might school the greyhounds at an early stage, find out if they are any good, and if they are no good, get rid of them completely under the radar without them being microchipped or anything being done with them. We need to be very careful about the expense to be placed on breeders to do all this. A grant system or something else should be put in place to help them so that they will go through the procedures. I have seen the changes over the past four or five years on passporting and microchipping.