Written answers

Tuesday, 21 July 2020

Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Hare Coursing

Photo of Jennifer WhitmoreJennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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251. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the details of hare coursing licences issued by county over the past ten years; the number of hares captured under those licences; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17048/20]

Photo of Catherine MartinCatherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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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. While the regulation of hare coursing is not under my statutory control, licences are required by the Irish Coursing Club (ICC) under the terms of the Wildlife Acts on behalf of their affiliated clubs to facilitate the netting and tagging of hares for closed park meetings. Licences are not issued on a county basis or to individual coursing clubs.

The most recent licences issued to the ICC to capture and tag hares for the 2019/2020 coursing season are available on the website of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of my Department. The licences include a Schedule of the individual hare coursing clubs subject to the licence.

On the NPWS website my Department also publishes reports provided by both the ICC and NPWS Conservation Rangers of individual hare coursing meetings and these include data on the number of hares captured at each meeting. These reports for the last five hare coursing seasons are available at .

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