Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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621. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the reason for her decision to issue a licence to coursing clubs for hare coursing. [40051/14]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Licences were issued by my Department on 15 August under the Wildlife Acts to the Irish Coursing Club, on behalf of its affiliated clubs, to facilitate the tagging and capturing of hares for the purpose of hare coursing for the 2014/15 coursing season.

The control of live hare coursing, including the operation of individual coursing meetings and managing the use of hares for that activity, is carried out under the Greyhound Industry Act 1958, which is the responsibility of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Hare coursing is administered by the Irish Coursing Club, which is a body set up under the Greyhound Industry Act 1958.

While I understand that there are many individuals opposed to hare coursing, there is no current evidence that coursing has a significant effect on hare populations and the decision to issue the licences took into consideration the favourable conservation status for the hare, as detailed in the Report on the Status of European Union Protected Habitats and Species in Ireland provided to the European Commission in 2013.