Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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323. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to phase out or preferably ban the use of shock collars and shock fencing for domestic animals. [22519/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Under the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013, a person is prohibited from causing unnecessary pain or suffering or endangering the health and welfare of any animal. The Act also provides that a person having possession of an animal must ensure that the animal is kept in a manner that safeguards its health and welfare.

S.I. No. 108 of 2014 provides for a ban on electro-immobilisation by means of any electrical equipment of an instrument which applies a sustained electric current or impulse directly to a live animal. Electrical stimulation or shock collars for training dogs are designed to produce lower stimuli lasting milliseconds rather than produce a sustained electric current. This is line with the current position of scientific research on the use of shock collars.