Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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691. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of arrests and prosecutions that have been made in each of the past five years in relation to unregulated puppy farms and animal cruelty for each breed. [45061/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I understand that all complaints of cruelty to animals made to An Garda Síochána are subject to investigation. The Deputy will appreciate that in any case, it is a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide if a prosecution should take place, and for what offence.

Matters relating to animal welfare are not under my remit as Minister for Justice. I understand that the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013, which is within the remit of my colleague the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, provides a modern and robust framework for dealing with issues relating to animal welfare.

I understand that An Garda Síochána liaises and works closely with both local authorities and the local offices of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

I am informed by An Garda Síochána that tables 1 and 2 contain the number of incidents reported to An Garda Síochána between the years 2016 and 2020 which have been recorded on PULSE as ‘Offences Against Animals’. ‘Offences Against Animals’ includes cases of animal cruelty among other offences such as hunting without a licence, failure to take care of an animal, failure to comply with authorised officers (for example, during an inspection) and non-compliance with animal identification procedures. There are no specific offence codes on PULSE for offences relating to puppy farms or animal cruelty specifically, such offences are captured under the broader code of 'Offences Against Animals'.

Table 1: Reported ‘Offences Against Animals’ incidents for the years 2016 – 2020 by subject animal family

Table 2: Reported ‘Offences Against Animals’ incidents for the years 2016 – 2020 by subject animal family with one or more associated charge or summons

I am advised by the Garda authorities that data was downloaded from PULSE on 6^thJanuary 2021. Crime counting rules were not applied to data.