2026-03-19

80. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for an update on the drafting of a new animal welfare strategy for 2026 to 2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21353/26]

I ask the Minister to make a statement on how the animal welfare strategy is progressing. I draw his attention to the fact that two countries, Wales and Scotland, have this week banned greyhound racing. Ireland is now going to be a complete and utter outlier. In banning it in Scotland, it will be an offence to set up a racetrack or for a dog owner to race a dog on one. The proponent of the motion said greyhound racing belonged in the past. The international consensus is to ban it. In Wales, it will come into force by 2030. Is it not time for us to transition out of greyhound racing?

I have a response here to the question the Deputy put down on the animal welfare strategy. The term of Ireland’s Animal Welfare Strategy 2021-2025: Working Together for Animal Welfare, our first ever animal welfare strategy, reached a conclusion at the end of last year. In 2025, a process was initiated to develop a new animal welfare strategy, which will act as a framework for engagement and collaboration to direct future activities with the aim of benefiting both animals and Irish society. Development of the strategy is now well under way following broad stakeholder engagement, including a non-statutory public consultation that was launched on 19 November and ran to 2 January. In excess of 1,750 individual submissions were received as part of that process. In moving to the drafting stage, my Department will work through the issues arising from this consultation and other issues in this area, both from a national and international, particularly EU, perspective, as a final document evolves for publication, which I hope and anticipate will be in quarter 2 of this year. The new strategy will continue to adopt a one-health-one-welfare approach, acknowledging and valuing the interdependencies between human, animal and environmental health, and taking an evidence-led approach to policymaking, target-setting, monitoring and evaluation. There was quite a variance in the topics raised in those 1,750 submissions. Some 1,250 individual submissions referenced a wide variety of issues; 123 were more substantive in nature; and 376 submissions were campaign-type submissions on one specific issue. Analysis of the totality of the submissions demonstrates that canine welfare, including control and breeding, is an issue of importance to the public. This is a new area for me. I take on board the points the Deputy raised on the greyhound industry. I do not intend to ban greyhound racing here. It will not be a surprise to the Deputy to hear me to say that. The control of dogs from the pet perspective was the dominant issue raised in the public submissions to my Department. I am glad to have responsibility for it now and I am working on it.

I do not think the Minister should be pre-empting whether he will ban greyhound racing. I hope he will actually study the strategy and come out with a report from it. Are we not actually going backwards on animal rights in this country when Wales and Scotland, two countries we have close ties with and to which we are aligned culturally, are banning it while the Minister is doubling down on maintaining it? Dogs Trust Ireland, not a radical socialist organisation by any means, has pointed out that 869 dogs have died on racetracks in the last six years and that 2,343 have been injured. Racing at speed on oval tracks is dangerous for dogs in extreme weather. They have poor diet, very little enrichment in their lives and very little traceability. That has been pointed out by Dogs Trust Ireland, which tries to work with the greyhound industry. This is an industry that is being propped up by the State. Attendances have plummeted. It is not widely supported in our society any more because people have seen the dangers of having a racing industry that is just propped up by the State and is cruel for the animals involved.

It is unfortunate that if the Deputy intended to concentrate solely on greyhound racing, she did not just ask-----

It is just because of what happened this week.

It is unfortunate she did not ask a question specifically on that because her question was on the broader animal welfare strategy, which is much broader than that. I disagree with some of the points she made, which are a dreadful slight on the thousands of people who work in our greyhound racing industry and who love the dogs and care for them greatly.

They are facts.

A throwaway comment on the floor of Parliament where she says that there is hardly any traceability is not borne out by the facts. The financial support my colleagues in the Department of agriculture and I are happy to provide for the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund has seen increased allocations towards the area of welfare. On the question that was raised, I want to look at some of the success of the previous strategy on animal welfare from 2021 to 2025. Funding to welfare charities increased from the 2020 budget of €2.4 million to over €6 million distributed to over 100 organisations in 2023, 2024 and 2025. We saw the banning of fur farming. The Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Council was relaunched and the first chair of the UCD school of veterinary animal welfare and veterinary ethics was appointed. I will look to building on that in the next strategy.

My question was broad. I will happily talk about the treatment of wild animals, animals in captivity and farmed animals but I decided that two events happened in Wales and Scotland this week that were absolutely seminal and should make the Irish Government think as well. Part of the reason that the greyhound industry has been able to sustain itself is exporting greyhounds. That will now be less of an option if it has been banned in two countries neighbouring us. While €20 million was given to the greyhound industry in the last budget, only €6 million was given to animal welfare charities, which we know are screaming out for more funding for dog rescues, pony rescues and so many others. I agree with the Minister that there is a huge concern over the treatment of dogs in this country, including puppy farming and many other things. However, there is no need for the State to be propping up greyhound racing in the way that it is. It is only maintaining itself. Some 5% of racing dogs have died within one year. Surely that should be considered an absolute priority in the animal welfare strategy.

As I said, responsibility for canine welfare, and the control and breeding of dogs, has recently come into my Department. I fought for it in the programme for Government talks. I feel it is a better fit coming under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine because we also share the responsibility for animal welfare. I look forward to introducing legislation later this year to tighten up measures and make improvements in dog breeding and so on. I have said that previously on the floor of the House. The public consultation on this animal welfare strategy, about which the Deputy asked her question, bears out the priority this represents in the public's mind. I mentioned what comprised the majority of the submissions that were made. Given the progress that was made in the last animal welfare strategy, this is an evolution. Obviously, we all take responsibility for animal welfare really seriously and we continue to evolve that. We have increased investment in that space. I look forward to establishing a new independently chaired advisory council on companion animal welfare. The public consultation phase will also feed into that. The dog control stakeholder group has a key role to play here as well.