Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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511. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will direct Wicklow county council to adhere to EU law on public procurement which supersedes the Control of Dogs Act 1986 and requires that a public tender must be held when their contract with the ISPCA to run the pound expires in February 2017. [1499/17]

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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513. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his role in ensuring that all dog control service and pounds follow appropriate procurement procedure to obtain maximum value for public money. [1501/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 511 and 513 together.

Under the Control of Dogs Acts, local authorities have responsibility for operating and managing dog control and licensing services in their administrative areas, including the management of dog pounds or shelters and my Department has no involvement in this process.

In this regard, section 15(2) of the Control of Dogs Act 1986 empowers local authorities to enter into arrangements with any person for the provision and maintenance of dog pounds or shelters and for the exercise by any such persons of the functions of the local authority under the Act in respect of the acceptance, detention, disposal and destruction of stray or unwanted dogs.

Furthermore, section 15(3) of the 1986 Act empowers local authorities to enter into arrangements with any other local authority, or with the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA), or with a person connected with animal welfare, for the exercise of all or any of its functions, other than its functions under section 17 or of this Act.

The procurement of any service in that regard, therefore, is a matter for each local authority, and the management and operation of such pounds or shelters are matters solely for the relevant local authority and one in which my Department has no role.