Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Is it? On a serious note, I believe it is important to recognise, and there has been collective agreement on this point, that we have a real problem with policing and enforcement. I refer to that awful incident with that poor child. My heart goes out to him and his family. We also have to be clear that what we need is enforcement and resources, otherwise new laws are not going to help the situation.

Thanks to Senator Boylan I looked at figures for where I live in Limerick and there are just 2.5 dog wardens for 8,500 dogs. That detail is really telling because last year there were no prosecutions under the Control of Dogs Act and only nine fines, of which five were paid.I looked at the figures across a range of counties. It is quite clear that there is problem. There were 97 prosecutions in the State, but 74 of those were in one county, namely, Cork. There is a massive problem here. Collectively, we need to ensure that the Government addresses the issues of enforcement and accountability.

I want to speak now on a wider but related issue. When I distributed some publicity material relating to this topic, I got a huge response from the general public, especially from people in Limerick, which is where I live. It was pointed out to me that there is not a single animal welfare inspector in Limerick at the moment. This means that in cases of cruelty to animals, the only recourse is to An Garda Síochána. The reality is that while gardaí are wonderful people, oftentimes they do not have the time and resources to respond to these issues. Simple practical steps need to be taken at local authority level and that needs to be funded by the Government in order to make a real difference in the context of animal cruelty cases.

The legislation we are discussing tidies up an anomaly in existing legislation and will assist animal welfare groups to improve the lives of dogs that are rescued under the Animal Welfare Act and to trace ownership. It is a very worthy Bill that should be pushed through the Houses of the Oireachtas speedily. It is clear that this legislation enjoys cross-party support. All of the contributors to the debate have spoken about the difference it will make in terms of being able to trace a dog licence to an actual dog and the much improved information that will be available to local authorities, including information on the type of dog, as a result of this legislation. This is one of many issues on which we should work together. We should not play politics with it and should work to get this Bill through the Seanad as quickly as possible. The general public would like to see these issues tackled clearly and quickly and thanks to Senator Boylan, we have a Bill to do just that.

I commend the Bill to the House. I also commend Senator Boylan and all of the Senators who have spoken so passionately here this evening.