Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and his officials for their work in bringing the Bill before the House. I support the general thrust and objectives of the Bill, without question, because the objective of the Bill is to improve the greyhound industry to which we all subscribe. I tabled amendments to try and strengthen the Bill, many of which were unsuccessful, and I again ask the Minister of State to reflect on some of the debate which took place in this House as he brings the Bill forward to the Dáil.

This is a great industry and the Minister of State is very familiar with it. He did an awful lot of good work, even before he became Minister of State, when he was Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It is still not too late to reflect on some of the material contained within the joint committee report which was published in January 2016 and include it in the Bill when it goes before the Dáil.

I wish the Minister of State well with the Bill. It is essential to bring it in as soon as possible to strengthen the greyhound sector and to improve its governance, despite my shortcomings about it. I presume the Bill may well find its way back to this House if there are changes made in the Dáil and we will have an opportunity at that stage to comment further.