Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent)

Yes, and I acknowledged that. They were important in the sense that it was recognised politically that the industry did have to be told. I will come back to section 29 in a moment. The piece that did not move forward then was the overbreeding practices, about which we heard absolutely gruelling and awful information. There was a 50% death rate in five years, or four years for some, as we have heard from Senator Stephenson. That is bad. Mass euthanisation was exposed. At one point, 6,000 greyhounds were euthanised in one year. Surgical artificial insemination is a terrible and grotesque animal welfare practice. We should not need a consultation to tell us. It is very evident and clear. The issue was not addressed back in 2019 and it needs to be addressed now. I do not want us to come in next year. I hope next year we will have separate debates on horse racing and greyhound racing. I also hope we are not in a situation where the same bad practices are being carried forward because they are indefensible - ethically, economically or on any basis.

I feel strongly about section 29. This is based on the amendment on rehoming that we put forward and that was accepted by the House because it made sense. I acknowledge that. Section 29 requires rehoming. We see greyhounds and lurchers everywhere, but these are a tiny fraction of the numbers that are being overbred because so many of them die before they get anywhere near a rehoming practice. Back in 2022, I spoke about my concern that the situation was moving backwards and that reminders and notes were sent out by the Irish Greyhound Owners and Breeders Federation to greyhound owners telling them not to use the rescue or rehoming services that were critical of the industry. Likewise, the Irish Retired Greyhound Trust was told it should only engage with rehoming services that refrain from criticising the industry. Again, we have a completely different agenda being imposed and we placed it alongside what we have heard in regard to the figures Senator Stephenson gave us. The cost of rehoming through the trust is €8,000, with its preferred partners. The cost of rehoming a dog through the animal welfare organisations that have been pushed to the side is between €100 and €1,000. Is the €7,000 to save the blushes of the industry or is somebody making a very large profit from a measure that was introduced in section 29 and meant to be a matter of welfare for the dogs? The Minister has the power to regulate under section 29 and to strengthen and improve the regulations under that section. I would like to see how that is done and how that specific issue is addressed.

I am sure there are individual owners who are responsible, but there were 5,000 enforcement notices and 10,000 potential breaches from 6,000 owners. The figures for breaches, set alongside the relatively small number of owners, points to not a few bad apples - I say this with absolute respect to my colleague - but to cultural problems within the industry. If we are getting that level of breach with that small number of owners, then we have to say the industry does not really show that it has changed.