Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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55. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on the legislation his Department is involved in regarding the control of dogs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11959/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware the Control of Dogs legislation is under the remit of the Department of Community and Rural Development (DCRD).

The Department is working with DCRD to co-ordinate efforts in this area across government. I was tasked by the then Taoiseach, now Tánaiste Micheál Martin to lead a cross-government review of legislation regarding dogs. Minister Heather Humphreys and I held a meeting on Monday 9th January and we requested officials to convene a working group on the control of dogs’ issue. The terms of reference of the group have been agreed and are published on my Department’s website.

This group has now held six meetings and will continue to meet regularly in the coming weeks.

The working group examined issues related to dog control and made recommendations for actions to address this problem. The report of the group has been submitted to Minister Humphreys and me. We are both considering it carefully. I will be bringing a Memorandum to Government shortly on this issue.

The group will continue to meet to coordinate action on these issues across departments and agencies.