Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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1218. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the reason open coursing clubs that hold meetings are not subject to hare netting licence conditions; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1118/19]

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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1219. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of open coursing meetings which have been monitored by National Parks rangers in the past ten years. [1119/19]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1218 and 1219 together.

My Department issued the Irish Coursing Club (ICC) with licences in August 2018 on behalf of its affiliated clubs to capture and tag hares for the 2018/19 coursing season. The majority of coursing meetings organised by the ICC relate to regular coursing where hares are captured under licence, are kept in a hare park, are released to course over a designated track and then re-released back into the wild. It is my understanding that in open coursing hares are not captured but are already present in the countryside, and therefore a netting licence would not arise.

Where resources allow, local National Parks and Wildlife Service conservation rangers and other staff attend coursing meetings to conduct on-the-spot checks and to monitor compliance with licences issued to the Irish Coursing Club and its affiliated clubs. My Department has concentrated its efforts on monitoring regular coursing meetings, including more recently on monitoring coursing trials. My Department is actively re-evaluating its approach to open coursing events.