Chris Andrews (Sinn Fein)

I acknowledge the young people from Slí, the sustainable living initiative, from County Waterford in the Visitors Gallery. Their vision is of a global community working together to ensure an equitable and sustainable future for all. Slí is dedicated to fostering a sustainable and ethically conscious community. It tries to empower people through education and action. I commend their ongoing interest and engagement within the community.

Recently, I was at a dog rescue hub. It is heartbreaking. In the dog rescue, there were many XL Bullies and dogs that are claimed to be XL Bullies. Despite the amendments made to the XL Bully ban legislation, legislation has again fallen short in many key areas. This has rescue organisations, legal advocates and dog owners concerned. Privately dogs are being afforded the opportunity for a review process and will be able to apply for the certificate of exemption. What worries rescue centres, however, is that there is no legal provision that allows dog rescue centres or local authority pounds to receive a temporary or interim certificate of exemption. Dogs cannot be homed without a permanent certificate of exemption. A permanent certificate can only be applied for once a dog is placed in a home. Therefore, dogs in rescue centres and pounds are all in a type of limbo and unable to move to homes that would legally allow them to receive the exemption and avoid being put down and killed.

The word "type" is being used to describe XL Bully dogs, but it remains vague and is open to interpretation. The continued use of the term "type" fosters subjectivity and inconsistency, enabling the misclassification of dogs that do not possess core XL Bully characteristics. Dogs wardens across this island have been arbitrarily misidentifying XL Bullies. At the very least, there needs to be proper mandatory uniform training with a written examination for dog wardens. This is the least any professional organisation should have. This vagueness perpetuates the risk of overreach, penalising responsible owners and wrongly targeting dogs who are not XL Bullies. Otherwise, this will continue to lead to misclassification, suffering of dogs and an unnecessary waste of taxpayers’ money. The emotional toll this legislation is having on those working in rescue organisations and council pounds has been well documented. Until these issues are resolved, the legislation will continue to result in unnecessary animal deaths, undermine public confidence and safety, and cause serious distress to those working to protect animals.