Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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449. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the Implementation Team established for developing the XL Bully Regulations is a sub group of the dog control stakeholder group; if not, the basis upon which it was formed; the rationale for setting up the implementation team given its purpose seems to duplicate what is covered in terms of reference for the dog control stakeholder group; if the implementation team is involved with drafting the amendments to the XL Bully regulations; the members on the implementation team; the dates of all meetings of the implementation team to date; if the minutes for the implementation team meetings will be made publicly available; and if any members of the implementation team were paid for their involvement. [31434/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The Dog Control Stakeholder Group was established in March 2024 to review the Control of Dogs Acts and the Dog Breeding Establishments Act. The stakeholder group's remit includes considering the need for legislative change.

Following a number of serious incidents, the then Minister for Rural and Community Development decided to introduce legislation to protect public safety. As part of this process, an Implementation Team was established to support the development of the initial XL Bully regulations in relation to operational aspects and the administrative process to support the implementation.

The Implementation Team is not a sub-group of the Dog Control Stakeholder Group and included some stakeholders who are not represented on the Dog Control Stakeholder Group.

The Implementation Team was not involved in drafting the recent amendments to the XL Bully regulations. However, the Department of Rural Development and Development did engage with the Local Government Management Agency again in the context of operational aspects of the amendments.

The Implementation Team consists of the following members;

Chair: Mr John Twomey

Department of Rural and Community Development

My Department

Department of Justice

An Garda Síochána

Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA)

Local Government Management Agency (LGMA)

Veterinary Ireland

No members of the Implementation Team received payment for their involvement in same. To date, the Implementation Team have met 13 times on the following dates; 19 July 2024, 26 July 2024, 9 August 2024, 23 August 2024, 30 August 2024, 6 September 2024, 13 September 2024, 20 September 2024, 25 October 2024, 22 November 2024, 6 December 2024, 20 January 2025, 18 March 2025.

The minutes of the Implementation Team meetings are not currently available publicly, and at present the Department of Rural and Community have no plans to publish the minutes publicly.