Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have raised this issue a number of times in the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately, we are all familiar with the post-Christmas puppy regret and with the large numbers of surrenders that are seen in January. However, it appears that Christmas has come early this year, with four shelters in the past 24 hours announcing they are at capacity and 17 in the past three weeks having announced they are full.

Unfortunately, it is a combination of the now unwanted post-Covid-19 lockdown dogs and the housing crisis forcing tenants to choose between their beloved pet and putting a roof over their heads. It is leading to a large number of dogs being surrendered. While I am not excusing anybody who got a dog during lockdown and who did not do the proper assessment as to whether they would be able to look after an animal for the 15 years it can take, that is not to say that a number of the dogs that are being surrendered are being so because they have behavioural issues caused by the fact they were bred in industrial puppy farms, where they were inbred and deprived of human interaction for those important first few weeks of their lives.

It is the Government's failure to regulate those puppy farms and to ensure the dogs are properly socialised that has led to this glut in dogs being available for people to buy during lockdown and that is now leading to the glut of those being surrendered. I asked for the Minister of State to come before the House today because I did not get an adequate response from the Department of Rural and Community Development, which has responsibility for the dog breeding establishments and the Control of Dogs Act, while animal welfare falls under the brief of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. What is the short-term plan by the Department to support these shelters with their capacity issues? Will funding be put in place so that they can foster the dogs out or provide new accommodation for them? They are under extreme capacity pressure.

What is the plan in the long term for dealing with the dog breeding establishments, which are churning out dogs, as if on a conveyer belt, making them readily accessible to people to get, and then, when the behavioural issues manifest or when people who are irresponsible no longer want these dogs, they are turning up at the shelters? Again, it is the public who are picking up the paycheck for those surrendered dogs.

What is the short-term plan to help those shelters to deal with the capacity issues and the long-term plan actually to stem the flow of dogs in this country through the puppy farms?