Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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41. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her views on the National Parks and Wildlife Service's reports of the injuries to and deaths of hares at live coursing meetings; and how she will address the illegal taking of hares for the hare trade. [19871/16]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Under the terms of the Wildlife Acts, licences are required by the Irish Coursing Club, covering their affiliated coursing clubs, if they wish to capture or tag hares for use at regulated hare coursing meetings.

It is a licence condition that a qualified veterinary surgeon should be in attendance during all coursing meetings and that a signed report on the general health of the hares, and on any injuries or deaths of hares that occur during the meeting, should be submitted to my Department. In the event of a hare dying while in the care of the coursing club, the veterinary surgeon will examine the hare, determine the cause of death and consider if a post mortem is necessary.

A very high proportion of the hares captured for hare coursing are, in fact, returned to the wild each year - an average of 99% of the hares used at hare coursing meetings have been returned to the wild over the past four hare coursing seasons.

There is an Open Season for the hare species, which extends from 26 September to 28 February of the following year and which allows for the hunting of hares. My Department is aware of the prevalence of illegal hare hunting around the country and successful prosecutions have been taken in recent years by the National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department relating to such illegal hunting. All incidents of illegal hare hunting should be reported to An Garda Síochána or to the National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department.