No plans to ban hunting, says Hanafin

HUNTING, COURSING and shooting will not be banned by the Government, Minister for Sports Mary Hanafin pledged at the weekend during a meeting with hunting activists concerned about the future of traditional rural sports.

Ms Hanafin said she had assured members of Rise! (Rural Ireland Says Enough) at a meeting in Cashel, Co Tipperary, that there are no plans to ban hunting, shooting or coursing as part of Fianna Fáil’s agreed Programme for Government with the Green Party.

“I was party to the Programme for Government discussions and there was a lot of discussion at the time about including a ban on coursing and fox hunting which the Green Party had indicated in their paper that they wanted included in the Programme for Government.

“We didn’t let that happen and the only thing that was agreed was in relation to stag hunting – I think the fears that the Rise! people have is that more and more is going to happen over the next few years but it isn’t in the Programme for Government so it’s not going to happen.”

Ms Hanafin spent 30 minutes meeting Rise! members including Jim Murphy, chairman of the Hunting Association of Ireland; Séamus O’Dwyer, master hunstman with the Suir Vale Harriers; and Donal Boyle, chairman of Federation for Hunting and Conservation in Europe.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Boyle said that the meeting with Ms Hanafin had been cordial and she had listened attentively to their position but that they remained concerned that the Green Party would continue to seek to have hunting, coursing and shooting banned.

“We accept that banning fox hunting isn’t in the Programme for Government but we’re very nervous of what could transpire because of the influence of the Green Party and we see the banning of the Ward Union stag hunt as very much the thin edge of the wedge,” he said.

Mr Boyle said the dog breeding establishments Bill brought before the Oireachtas by Minister for the Environment John Gormley will have a major impact on hunt kennels and the activities of various hunt, harrier and foot beagle clubs. “We don’t condone the abuse of dogs in any form but when the Bill was originally being proposed, we were promised that hunt clubs would be exempted and that it was targeting commercial breeders but it’s being used to squeeze hunt kennels.”

About 150 members of Rise! from Tipperary, Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny and Limerick marched through Cashel on Saturday morning before holding a rally outside a Fianna Fáil regional conference being held at Bru Boru heritage centre at the Rock of Cashel.

Among the groups represented were the Suir Valley Harriers, the South Tipperary Harriers, the Kilmoganny Hunt from Kilkenny, Woodstown Harriers from Waterford, the Cork Branch of the Irish Foot Hounds Association and the Scarteen Hunt from Limerick.