Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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158. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht further to parliamentary question number 458 of 29 November 2016, in relation to the claim that 99.33% of hares are released back to the wild post coursing, her views on whether all of these hares are at risk of subsequently dying of the stress related condition known as capture myopathy; if she will withdraw the coursing licences to protect hares from this and the ongoing injuries and deaths on coursing fields; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39188/16]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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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 my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. My responsibility relates to the conservation status of the hare.

My Department issued licences under the Wildlife Acts to the Irish Coursing Club, covering their affiliated coursing clubs, to capture and tag hares for use at regulated hare coursing meetings for the 2016/17 coursing season, which extends from the end of September 2016 to the end of February 2017. These licences contain 26 conditions which have been refined over the years, the majority of which are central to hare welfare.

In addition, my Department understands that the Irish Coursing Club has extensive systems and practices in place to underpin the welfare of hares and greyhounds involved in coursing.

A Monitoring Committee on Coursing is in place, comprised of officials from my Department, the ICC and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to monitor developments in coursing, and in that regard, the situation is kept under constant review to ensure that coursing is run in a well-controlled and responsible manner in the interests of both hares and greyhounds.