Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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458. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine as world travelling circuses in Ireland are unable to adequately provide for the animals in their care, if he will consider backing a ban on the use of animals in Irish circuses in favour of a circus industry without animals, putting Ireland in line with dozens of countries around the world that have banned animal-act circuses, the most recent being Colombia and the U.K.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33454/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Concerns relating to conditions under which circus animals are kept and managed come under the scope of the Protection of Animals Act 1911 and the Protection of Animals (Amendment) Act 1965. These are the main statutes governing issues of cruelty to all animals. This legislation is enforced by An Garda Síochána and will be replaced by the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 in due course. Any complaints relating to the treatment of circus animals should be made to the Garda Siochána. There are no plans at this juncture to ban animals from performing in circuses in this country.