2026-05-07

I thank and acknowledge the Minister for being here today. I have often spoken in this House about animal welfare, particularly puppy farms and the regulation of dog breeding. One of the things that we can agree on in this House is that Ireland is a nation of dog lovers. If the Minister goes down any street, he will find someone out walking their much-loved dog. They form a huge part of our homes and our families. Unfortunately, there are far too many people in this country who are not dog lovers, and, in fact, see dogs and puppies as a commercial opportunity. They will breed as many puppies as they possibly can to try to make unbelievable amounts of money in some instances. I was just looking on one of the websites that showed the most gorgeous pups. Some of them are going for approximately €2,500. Unfortunately, there are some people who will take whatever opportunity they can to make as much money out of pups and puppy farming. Therefore, that is where the Government comes in to regulate these operations. Unfortunately, the current legislation is not sufficient to regulate them properly or to put enough safeguards in place. What we have are instances where hundreds of breeding females could be on site with no statutory limits on the number of staff required to look after them. The conditions they are in are often absolutely horrific. That is a side of puppies that people do not see when they buy them. They do not see where that puppy came from and started its life and the awful conditions that the puppy may have potentially been born into. I also tend to spend a lot of time looking on rescue Facebook and Instagram pages. These organisations do incredible work in filling in those gaps and ensuring that, where they can, they absolutely assist any puppies or any families looking for dogs who cannot be homed through normal means, or, when they are homed cannot live in a family home and have to be rehomed because the family cannot look after them. One of the things that I found very interesting when I was researching my Bill on this previously was when I spoke to behaviouralists and vets. When a dog with behavioural issues comes in to them, they can identify exactly which puppy farm that animal has come from because it is either genetic issues or issues with the environment. The environment that they were born into actually causes behavioural issues that stay with that pup, sometimes for their lifetime. I brought this Bill forward in December 2025. I agreed and was very happy to agree to work with the Minister of State, Deputy Grealish, on it. We have a timed amendment on it. A commitment was made that we would work closely on the Bill to see if we could actually come up with something through consultation and engagement, something that will help protect and regulate puppy farms in order that we have much greater confidence in them. I want to see a cap on the number of dogs that can be on site and the conditions in which they are held. Could the Minister give me an update on any progress on that? I have had one meeting with the Minister of State but unfortunately there was no progress at that point. Could he provide me with an update with the progress that has been made, perhaps in relation to the stakeholder group, the public consultation and where he sees this legislation going forward?

I thank Deputy Whitmore for raising this important matter. I thank her for facilitating it being moved to today so that I could take it myself, which I wanted to do. I also thank the Minister of State, Deputy Grealish, for having taken the Bill in my absence the last time it was discussed. Animal welfare in general comes under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine but, as the Deputy will be aware, it was a key commitment in the programme for Government to have a joined-up approach to dog control issues, something I fought for and advocated for during the negotiations on the programme for Government. This was to ensure that we would have that joined-up approach to dog control issues, legislative and policy responsibility for the Control of Dogs Act and the Dog Breeding Establishments Act and have that transferred from the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht to my Department. That happened on 1 June 2025 and 1 August 2025, respectively. Regarding dog welfare, the dog control stakeholder group was established in 2024 with a remit to consider policy and legislative matters, specifically the dog control Acts and the Dog Breeding Establishments Act and consider any need for legislative change. Three sub-groups of a stakeholder group were established to focus on specific areas relating to dog control and welfare. I expect a report to be submitted to me from that group very shortly. In the interim, I have been working on reviewing all of the legislative enforcement and engagement issues relating to the control of dogs. I intend to bring forward specific legislation in relation to dog breeding establishments very shortly, which will then go through the full rigours of the legislative process here, as committed to. The Dog Breeding Establishments Act, as it exists, provides a robust regulatory framework for the licensing, monitoring and inspection of dog breeding establishments by local authorities, where a serious and immediate threat exists to public health or animal health and welfare for the closure of such establishments. Dog breeding establishments guidelines were establishment under section 15(4) of the Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 following a public consultation process in 2018. It came into effect on 1 January 2019. These guidelines aim to provide for welfare of dogs and pups, provide clarity on socialisation of pups, and accurate record-keeping. It stipulates staff to animal ratios and allows for unannounced inspections by local veterinary services and beyond. The guidelines are published and are available on my Department's website. It is important to note that dog breeding establishments must comply with the relevant health and safety legislation. Dog breeding establishments must also comply with relevant animal welfare legislation such as the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013. Under the Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 local authorities are required to maintain and publish lists of dog breeding establishments and my Department collates this information to form a national dog breeding establishment register. However, as the Deputy outlined today and previously, the practices that are happening at present in this space are unsatisfactory. I share the Deputy's determination to bring about a change here. It was why in the negotiations for the programme for Government I wanted whoever was Minister in this position now to have the ability to bring those together and I am delighted I have the opportunity to do that and to work with colleagues in the House, including Deputy Whitmore. I was a member of the joint Oireachtas committee on agriculture from 2011 to 2016 when the then Minister, Simon Coveney, brought in a consolidated animal welfare Act. However, we always have to strive to do better and keep a very close eye on what the practices of the day are. Deputy Whitmore has outlined some really concerning practices that are of grave concern to me. The stakeholder group has done a huge body of work. I hope we can get its report very soon because I do not want to act in advance of that but I am really keen to move here. I agreed to the timed amendment to Deputy Whitmore's Bill on the basis that there were a few elements of it I wanted to work through on my side but I believe we are both trying to achieve the same thing. There are some constraints I would be happy to discuss with the Deputy in the House and on Committee Stage as well as we work through what is possible legislatively and legally and what is not. I have a clear determination in this space. I hope to bring forward legislation very soon this year and to be able to work through that legislative process on reform.

I thank the Minister. I appreciate his answer and clearly this is something he wants to drive strongly forward, so I look forward to working with him on it. It is a really important piece of work and I have always wondered why there was never any previous moves to strengthen it. It is good to hear the Minister is taking that seriously and I look forward to hopefully seeing the results and report from the stakeholder group because it is important it is taken into account in the legislation. We will wait for that process to follow. I want to use my last minute to raise another animal welfare issue that I am finding quite disturbing at the moment. That is the number of instances of sulky racing and the impact on the horses involved in that activity. I have been sent and have seen some absolutely horrific videos of horses. One was on the N7 recently where there were five or six cars directly behind two horses that were being forced to race and the cars were flashing their lights and sounding their horns. Those horses must have been absolutely terrified to be chased in that manner on a motorway. For the life of me, I cannot understand it. This is not the first instance; it quite frequent. There was the instance of that poor pregnant horse, Anne, that died recently following a sulky race. I just do not understand why there has not been a tightening up on these races. They have been prohibited since 1993 but we see them so often. There are certain animal welfare issues we have to stop completely. We cannot have instances where horses a being treated so inhumanely on our streets in broad daylight. There does not seem to be any stopping it. Can the Minister give me some update on what his Department is doing and what consultation he has had with An Garda Síochána on this issue?

In trying to prepare for this debate, I was not sure which element of horse welfare and dog welfare the Deputy would raise. I will amend what I will say on the basis of the targeted nature of her question. We have done a lot in the area of equine control and supporting equine charities and animal welfare charities in general in terms of the work I do in my Department as well as on supporting the different elements. We have a number of urban horse projects and so on and they are really positive. From 2015 to date, we have spent about €2.1 million on urban horse projects, and €170,000 was allocated for these projects in 2026. My Department would welcome submissions from local authorities on other projects. The Deputy specifically mentioned sulky racing, which I have huge concern about. It is important to say that responsibility for animal welfare rests with the owner of the animal and the person whose care the animal is in. Sulky racing on roads comes under the Department of Transport and, as the Deputy said, the Garda Síochána as well. My Department does work in the area of enforcement. We have the legislation around harness racing on roads. We have to be able to identify the organiser and that is difficult to do in many instances. It is the organiser who is liable in that regard. I am having engagement with my colleague, the Minister for Transport, while also looking at it from the justice side as well because I am deeply uncomfortable with the images we have seen on our motorways, which are completely unacceptable. It is lawlessness. It is not appropriate behaviour. From an animal welfare perspective, it is absolutely terrible. It is also a road safety issue on many fronts. It is something that is not acceptable to me and something I hope, through working with colleagues in government, we can have further action on.