Written answers

Thursday, 16 February 2006

Department of Agriculture and Food

Animal Welfare

5:00 pm

Photo of Jack WallJack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 83: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the amount allocated and the amount which has been spent during each of the past five years on enforcing the current body of legislation oriented towards ensuring a high level of animal welfare here; the number of violations of legislative measures which her attention has been brought to in the area of animal welfare during each of the past five years; the number of these violations which were brought to court; the number of convictions under animal welfare related legislation which there have been for each of the past five years; the number of people employed by her Department to ensure compliance with the current body of animal welfare related legislation; if she will make a statement on the possibility of an inspectorate dedicated to investigating violations of animal welfare legislation; and if she will make a further statement on the question of reforming the current body of animal welfare related legislation. [5938/06]

Photo of Mary CoughlanMary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The main statutes governing cruelty to animals in this country are the Protection of Animals Acts 1911 and 1965. Responsibility for pursuing complaints under that legislation rests with the Garda Síochána which may, on receipt of a complaint, investigate and bring a prosecution against any person alleged to have committed an act of cruelty against an animal. Officers of my Department are regularly involved in assisting the Garda in such cases.

My Department has certain statutory responsibility for the welfare and protection of farmed animals. The legislation governing this is the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes Act 1984 and the European Community (Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes) Regulations 2000. In addition there is specific legislation relating to pigs, calves and laying hens.

Information on animal welfare cases dealt with in any particular year under the foregoing headings is not compiled centrally in my Department. Cases which come to notice are dealt with, generally, by officers based in my Department's district veterinary offices. These officers deal with the implementation of animal welfare legislation as well as having responsibilities in a wide number of other areas related to animal health, disease control and so forth. It is not possible to estimate with any accuracy the time allocated by individual officers to the different activities.

The principal expenditure on animal welfare relates to the salaries and other costs of the personnel engaged in dealing with animal welfare cases. Funding is also available to deal with emergency care, feeding, transport and so forth of welfare compromised farm animals but amounts expended in any year on these aspects are relatively modest.

In 2004 the farm animal welfare council, FAWAC, introduced an early warning-intervention system, EWS, for animal welfare cases involving the Department of Agriculture and Food, Irish Farmers Association and the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals. The objective of the system is to provide a framework within which farm animal welfare problems can be spotted before they become critical or overwhelming. The new system will allow for concerned individuals to approach their local IFA representatives, their local SPCA or my Department in the knowledge that the matter will thereafter be dealt with in the most effective, timely and sensitive manner.

In addition to the foregoing, my Department makes ex gratia payments annually to organisations involved in the direct delivery of animal care and welfare services to assist in their ongoing work. In this regard, some €1.2 million was paid to 86 organisations in December last to assist them during 2006 and a provision of €1.1 million for this purpose is included in my Department's Estimates for 2006.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.