Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for accepting amendment No. 17 which was originally tabled by me and Senator Norris. These amendments relate to the area of artificial insemination. I spoke at length on Committee State about the artificial insemination of greyhounds, frozen semen and the need for this to be comprehensively dealt with once and for all. Amendment No. 19 endeavours to have a maximum service by any one sire of 120 in any calendar year.At the moment, there is no maximum limit. As I said on Committee Stage, the issue with frozen semen is that there are dogs that have been dead for years and yet their semen continues to be used. That is despite the fact that a death limit was applied under regulations brought in in 2005 by the then Department of Agriculture and Food. I read a copy of the statutory instrument which said that there was a two-year death limit. That was revoked in 2014 but the revocation did not have retrospective application, as was outlined by the then Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, in the Dáil.

Semen taken from any dog prior to 2014 cannot, therefore, be used legally, yet it does continue to be used and used in facilities licensed by the Irish Greyhound Board. As it happens, I went on to the website of one of those licensed premises. There are dogs there that are dead since the 1990s and their frozen semen is still being advertised online this morning. That is in total contravention of the regulations set out by the Irish Greyhound Board and by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It is, however, allowed to continue.

I do not know why that is the case. Every time I ask a question on this I get some kind of vague answer from the Irish Greyhound Board. It is not being dealt with. The background to the issue is that it is a major cause of concern in the industry. Why is that? As I understand it, anyone who has money can avail of the frozen semen. The price comparison is between €500 up to about €7,000. Many ordinary owners and breeders cannot afford to artificially inseminate their dogs because of the cost involved. Given that there are, according to the figures I have, about five or six operators in the State licensed by the Irish Greyhound Board. This is effectively a cartel. Those operators should be complying with the regulations set down by the Irish Greyhound Board and they are clearly not doing this.

As I said the other day, there is one operator, based in the Six Counties, flaunting the fact that he has £5 million of frozen semen available and that he is going to become wealthy as a result. That is wrong and that is the background to these amendments. Amendment No. 19, my first amendment, is a reasonable one. It is to have a maximum service, by any one sire, of 120 in any calendar year. It would support the ordinary grassroots industry because it cannot compete with this industry within an industry. It is turning into an economic minefield.

Amendment No. 20 refers to line 16 on page 26 of the Bill and concerns the controls put in place by the board. Amendment No. 21 is to compel the board to act on this situation by inserting into the Bill: "The Board shall, within three months of enactment of this legislation, make regulation prohibiting to use of frozen semen for artificial insemination of greyhounds.” That would deal with the regulation issue as well. I am not a scientific expert but what I have read suggests frozen semen has an indefinite lifespan. That is to say that it can be frozen back in 1962 and still be used today. It has an indefinite lifespan. That is wrong.

These amendments are intended to create competition within the sector, to protect the interests of current owners and breeders and to allow people who want to breed dogs to stay in the sector. From what I can gather, if what is happening at the moment is allowed to continue, what will happen is that we will end up with a situation where the ordinary owners and breeders will not be able to compete. They will leave the sector and we will end up with very few stakeholders in this great greyhound industry in years to come.

The industry is at a crossroads. The question is whether the board can be trusted to deal with this when it has not dealt with it thus far. We read stories of dogs that died back in 1992 and 1997 and their semen is still being used today to impregnate other dogs and then the dogs that result from that impregnation run and win. If a person has money and is able to invest it in the greyhounds, it seems he or she can get ahead in this sector. That is wrong. It is not a level playing field. I am trying to correct that and that is the rationale behind amendment No. 21.

There has been no limit since 2014 but prior to that there was a two-year limit. Amendment No. 21 is, therefore, compatible with the objectives of the 2005 regulations from the then Department of Agriculture and Food because they refer to frozen semen of two years or more. One part of that was amended in 2014. These amendments on artificial insemination are to clean up this area. If the Minister of State is not willing to accept the amendments, what are the alternatives to deal with this issue?

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine report, which I referred to previously, stated that this issue had to be dealt with immediately. That was in January 2016. We are now nearing the end of 2018 and it has not been dealt with yet. If the Minister of State is not willing to accept these amendments, does he really have confidence that the Irish Greyhound Board is dealing with this issue? Has he been informed as to why the board is not dealing with this issue and why it licensed operators to provide frozen semen centres and licensed premises that continue to flout the law? I refer to those premises that continue to advertise and promote, right up to this morning, the sale of semen from dogs that have been dead for more than 20 years. Those are my questions in the event that the Minister of State is not willing to accept these amendments.