I will start by paying tribute to the Creagh Lane abuse survivors who have had to fight tirelessly, although they should not have had to, for justice in the face of a conspiracy by the church and a cover up and absolute obstruction by the State. Tonight, TDs will have an opportunity to ban the barbaric practice of hare coursing; to join the North and the rest of Europe in saying that terrorising animals is not entertainment or sport; to stop thousands of Irish hares being captured from the wild every year, crammed into crates and then into enclosures with other hares despite them being solitary animals; and to then make them run for their lives from dogs that are ten times their size and with hares being pinned to the ground, thrown into the air and killed every single year. We know that many Fianna Fáil TDs have told constituents that they are opposed to hare coursing and want to vote against it. What is the Taoiseach's position? Is he personally in favour of hare coursing? Does he think it is okay to torture wild animals for fun or for gambling? Will he let his TDs vote with their consciences or is this a case of Fianna Fáil running with the hares and hunting with the hounds; saying one thing to one audience and then doing another thing? A new poll published this morning confirms the vast majority of people right across this country are opposed to hare coursing. We know there is no urban-rural divide on this issue despite what the tiny minority of people who enjoy torturing animals try to make out. There is a troubling part of the debate on this issue so far which needs to be cleared up before TDs vote tonight. In the debate on Thursday, the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, said, "In 2022, an independent economic analysis estimated that coursing contributed approximately €70.7 million annually to the Irish economy." The same figure was repeated on the airwaves by other Fianna Fáil TDs and by the Irish Coursing Club. This, however, is a very elusive report, shyer than the hare itself. It was supposedly done in 2022 but was not mentioned literally anywhere until last week. Parliamentary questions were asked in 2025 and this report was never mentioned. When asked by The Journal, the Irish Coursing Club refused to provide this report, supposedly because it has to be presented to the club's members first - four years after it was written. So, we have a report, apparently produced in 2022, with an unbelievable finding of a value of over €70 million for hare coursing, which conveniently has not been published in four years, so nobody can actually scrutinise it. It is all a bit mysterious, would the Taoiseach not agree? Has he seen this report? Does he agree that if it exists at all, it needs to be published before the vote so that TDs can assess for themselves the supposed economic benefit of continued cruelty and barbarism towards Irish hares?
Sentiment score: -0.11
The Taoiseach says you have to bring people with you, but the people are miles ahead of the politicians on this one. In today's poll, when you exclude the undecided, 74% of people support a ban on hare coursing. In the poll a number of years ago, it was 77%, and higher in rural areas than in urban areas. The problem the people often face is that they have to try to drag the politicians with them because this place remains an outlier compared with society at large, where there is potentially going to be a majority support for hare coursing. Second, we have heard again and again that this industry is highly regulated. The whole essence of the thing is terrorising hares. It does not have animal welfare at its heart. Despite what a Fine Gael TD tried to suggest in the debate on Thursday, the hares actually do not enjoy it. They are not running for the laugh; they are running because they are utterly terrified by dogs that are ten times their size. Third, I come back to the question of the report. It is very troubling that in the debate the Government relied on a figure from a report that has not been produced, cannot be analysed and cannot be scrutinised.
Sentiment score: -0.24
How can people vote when they are told there is €70 million from Irish coursing? That does not make any sense whatsoever.
Sentiment score: 0.00
They are told it is in a report but they do not have the capacity to analyse that. That is a problem.
Sentiment score: -0.20
Will the Taoiseach accept that the report needs to be published before a vote takes place?
Sentiment score: 0.38