Breeding Bill in negotiation - FF

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen is in negotiation with Minister for the Environment John Gormley over aspects of the the Dog Breeding Establishments Bill, an Oireachtas committee has been told.

Fianna Fáil TD Bobby Aylward told the Oireachtas agriculture committee that Mr Cowen addressed the issue at a parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday.

“The Taoiseach has been involved with greyhounds all his life and knows all about them and the industry and is in consultation with the Minister,” he said.

He said like many backbench TDs, he had grave reservations about aspects of the Bill, but was constrained in what he could say because his party was in coalition.

He and all other committee members expressed concern about aspects of the Bill after Adrian Neilan, chief executive, Bord na gCon – the body which controls greyhound racing – made a submission to it yesterday.

The industry, Mr Neilan said, was at serious risk from the Bill as it was already legislated for under the 1958 Greyhound Industry Act.

“We are now being asked to submit to dual registration and double inspection systems. We will be saddled with unworkable definitions pertaining to the greyhound breeding cycle.”

Mr Neilan said more than 91 per cent of breeding in Ireland was done by small breeders.

“Asking people who clearly would not consider themselves to be a breeding establishment to pay an annual fee of €400 as well as submitting themselves to another inspection routine will be the inflexion point for these people to leave the industry,” he said.

He predicted there would be a significant reduction in the numbers involved in an industry, where €257 million was spent annually on breeding. The introduction of micro-chipping would also increase costs of an estimated €1 million and this was unnecessary.

“The enactment of the Bill . . . will lead to the destruction of a fine traditional Irish industry.”

He also called for engagement between the Department of the Environment and the industry.

Ned O’Keeffe (FF) said “common sense would prevail” on many of these issues while Michael Creed (FG) and Martin Ferris (SF) said their parties would oppose the Bill in the Dáil.