78. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will outlaw teeth-clipping, tail-docking and castration in pig farming and regulate sow stalls and farrowing crates to have an area of not less than 5 sq. m, so as to improve animal welfare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36640/25]

Sentiment score: 0.13

Last Tuesday, I introduced a Bill to ban pig mutilation, sow stalls and farrowing crates, which the EU has already committed to phase out and for which the Minister is already giving grants to farmers to move away from. The question is whether he will take a lead on this, as the Government did under pressure from campaigners on fur farming, where it moved ahead of the rest of the European Union to ban fur farming. Will the Minister act now to ban the most inhumane practices in the pig industry?

Sentiment score: -0.35

What provoked me to introduce this Bill was undercover investigations carried out by the National Animal Rights Association and Animal Rebellion Ireland. There were two separate investigations on six different farms, chosen at random. Video evidence was produced, which I watched. It was horrendous. The Department has been sent the footage but I do not know if the Minister has had a chance to watch it. I encourage him to do so. Sick and dying pigs with open wounds and weeping open sores were left to suffer and die in filthy conditions. "Enrichment" was just a metal bar and the pigs were clearly starved of any real enrichment. Pigs had their tails painfully docked or cut off right up to the root, although tail-docking is supposed to be banned, other than in limited circumstances. Up to 95% of Irish pigs still have their tails docked. The farrowing crates and sow stalls are so narrow that the sows cannot turn around or move more than a few centimetres. They are in there for long periods to ensure they never get a moment's break from suckling the 15 piglets that are now regularly born in each litter. Has the Minister seen the footage and how does he respond to it?

Sentiment score: -0.13

Pigs are highly intelligent, sociable creatures. The farms were selected at random and all of them demonstrated horrific conditions for pigs. They were in a desperate state. Dead pigs were just lying there, as were pigs that were severely injured and heading towards death. Pigs were trapped in very small spaces. They are in grim indoor spaces and they never go outside in their whole lives. Some 3.5 million pigs are in conditions like that and are slaughtered in Ireland every single year. Pig farming takes place on a very small number of farms. There are approximately 260 pig farms in Ireland. What we have is a mixture of breaking existing laws and laws that are inadequate and allow poor conditions to persist. The Minister might tell us what is being done about that. Every time I raise such issues or there is an "RTÉ Investigates" programme, the Minister says he is looking into the matter but nothing ever seems to happen in regard to actions against the farmers who are guilty of abuse or in terms of improvements to the legislation.

Sentiment score: -0.27