I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." We are here today on an historic occasion. This is the first Bill in Dáil Éireann to specifically outlaw fox hunting. There have been attempts to ban a range of blood sports before. The origins of fox hunting are around the 1400s, when foxes were on farmland and people rounded up a dog to get rid of them. This became a formal sport in the nineteenth century by the British, our colonial rulers, dressed in master attire and all of the trappings of hierarchy. Oscar Wilde's famous phrase, "[T]he unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable", still applies. However, the personnel have changed socially. It is ironic that in 1919 Sinn Féin, for example, the forerunner of the three big parties in the Dáil today, ran a campaign of disruption of fox hunts in protest at the release of prisoners for independence precisely because fox hunting was carried out by the landed gentry. The participants may be different, but it is ironic that the three big parties in the Dáil that profess to be nationalist maintain this when it has been banned in the UK for over 20 years. There is overwhelming opposition to fox hunting in this country. Let us be very clear on that from the outset. It is not popular in any way whatsoever in all regions and among all ages. We have heard some Ministers banging a rural-urban drum all week. However, a recent poll found 73% of people are opposed to fox hunting and only 12% expressed any support for it. We will keep hearing that this is a rural versus urban issue, but the statistics say otherwise. In Connacht-Ulster, 72% of people in the poll to which I referred were opposed to fox hunting and in Dublin the figure was 76%. It is virtually the same feeling. The importance of the fox in Irish folklore and history needs to be stated because it has been demonised. It is a native species, important to our biodiversity and plays an important role as a pollinator to spread seeds in our ecosystem. I want to start with what happens on the fox hunt because we will hear a lot of things. This is about cruelty to animals. The Irish Council Against Bloodsports provides a very good description: The dogs are sent into an area to scent out a fox and force it to break cover ... the chase begins and can continue for an hour or more. This part of the hunt provides the “field” [the riders] with the excitement they crave as they hurdle fences, ditches and walls in pursuit of the fox. The fox will go anywhere to escape the hounds. He will try to go to earth down a fox-hole, drain or badger sett, but these escapes are likely to have been blocked the night before by hunt supporters. The fox will run among sheep and other livestock, the hounds following in pursuit, resulting in the livestock being scattered and put under stress. If he cannot escape, the fox is chased to exhaustion at which point he will be caught and savaged to death by the hounds. Foxhounds are bred for stamina, not speed, otherwise the fox would be caught too soon and spoil the hunters’ fun. Often a fox will succeed in finding an unblocked refuge. The hunt has several options; they can leave the fox if they are confident of finding others, they can dig him out with shovels, or they can send for the terrierman Either way, it is a horrific ending for the fox. I took part in a debate yesterday and the person I debated said a fox is wily and cute, as if it enjoyed this. What I will say comes from people who study animal behaviour, not a TD speaking off the top of her head. For the fox, there is heightened fear, exhaustion and loss of motor control. The Burns inquiry, carried out before fox hunting was banned in England and Wales, found that a fox had severe mental trauma. The other animals involved in this barbaric process, such as horses, also suffer. They are forced to run and jump. This is a prey animal whose first and primary instinct is flight. Hounds are also hidden victims. They can be injured and, as we know, are often dumped and shot by their owners when they are no longer of use. Why is this barbarism maintained? The argument from one party, namely Sinn Féin, was that it would go underground and we need to regulate it. It is practically underground anyway because there is evidence of criminal adjacent behaviour. As those who attended the briefing we had last week will know, foxes are often put in a sack when caught and brought to dogfights according to wildlife rescuers who have found foxes consistent with those sorts of injuries. In a survey carried out by thejournal.ie, it was found that foxes sell for about €100 and there are about 4,500 members of illegal hunt clubs. There is money in this. As with everything, that is what is keeping it going. There is tourism in fox hunting because it has been banned in the UK. There is money in hunts for those who organise them. Again, I do not have time to go into all of that. I want to deal very quickly with some of the issues relating to foxes and farming. As I said, they keep down the number of rodents, which is important for arable farming. Rabbits can cost arable farmers a lot of money. The fox is portrayed as a threat to sheep and livestock. The biggest threats to lambs are weather, starvation and disease. They are the leading causes of lamb mortality. Only 1% of lambs are estimated to be lost to foxes. In areas of hill farming the figure may be slightly higher. Let us have grants to help hill farmers deal with that. Good husbandry and fencing are the way around this. We keep hearing that we need to keep down fox numbers. If a cull is needed, it is up to the Department of agriculture to organise that; it will not be a wild west situation of leaving it to individual fox hunts. We keep hearing about the equine industry. A UCD report found that less than 5% of our equine sector is reliant on hunting. There is huge potential to expand the equine sector. Loads of working class kids and ordinary people cannot access horses because it is still an elitist sector, such as trekking and so on. Last week, there was a bill in the Dáil on dog welfare. I know the names of all TDs with dogs at this point because we heard from Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael about how they love their dogs. A fox is a dog - madra rua. It is a wild dog. Why is a wild dog of less importance? If Deputies vote against my Bill, why are they okay with wild dogs being hounded like this? Domestic dogs kill sheep and bite children. Some of them kill humans, yet we do not advocate that they be hunted down. The Irish Wildlife Trust and the National Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, NSPCA, have answered a lot of these arguments and fully back the Bill. I want to mention some of the myths that rural people love fox hunting. Nothing could be further from the truth. Again, due to time I will not read out all of the correspondence I have received. Many people have contacted my office regarding this issue. They described how people arrogantly come onto their property, trespass on their lands and terrorise them. Agnes, who lives in Kildare and contacted my office, also spoke to the Irish Independent. Her sister is profoundly disabled and hounds invaded their garden. The two women were traumatised listening to hounds savage a fox. They tried to drown out the shrill cries from the fox by playing very loud music in the house. The woman could not eat for about a week afterwards. Does the Minister think that is okay? Deputies will stand up and tell us that this is a pursuit and part of tradition for rural people. Rural people do not love fox hunting. It is a minority participation, 2% according to the most recent poll. Some people are suddenly concerned about wildlife, such as ground birds. Of course, a fox will go after a pheasant or a ground bird; that is a natural instinct. The reason ground birds are under threat is development, habitat destruction and all of the issues of modernisation and urbanisation. I will also mention a fact that is not stated, which is the research showing the link between cruelty to animals and cruelty to humans. If the Government allows this type of barbarism, people become inured to inflicting harm on others. For example, in school shootings in the US, some 43% of the shooters had abused animals. There are many more examples. In 2017, 89% of women who had companion animals and were in an abusive relationship reported that the abuser had abused the animals as well. It is a well known fact that if someone abuses animals he or she is inured to abusing humans. I do not have time to talk about the Whip system now but I will when summing up. It is absolutely outrageous that this is being used to prevent the popular will.
Sentiment score: -0.09
It does not; it bans trail hunting.
Sentiment score: 0.00
It does not mention shooting.
Sentiment score: 0.00
It is hard to talk in the Dáil without referring to people who are not here.
Sentiment score: -0.10
They are very objective over there.
Sentiment score: 0.00
It does not say that at all.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Who is "she"?
Sentiment score: 0.00
We will leave aside the dripping misogyny that we have had to sit and listen to for the past few minutes from somebody who is sitting in the Department of agriculture talking about Deputy Whitmore and about myself. However, I will deal with the issues the Government and the other parties have raised. It is very clear that they are trying to make a culture war out of something that is very simple. It is about cruelty to the fox. None of the speakers who spoke against the Bill have even bothered to deal with whether or not they think it is cruel to the fox. All of the other extraneous issues have been talked about. I absolutely agree that rural life is in crisis. They may be surprised to think that. However, it is in crisis for a lot of reasons.
Sentiment score: -0.22
How do you know what I know?
Sentiment score: 0.00
I actually do not live in a city. I live in a suburb. I spent my childhoods in the country. It is how I feel when the Deputy starts talking about women, women's rights and women's bodies. I just have to sit and listen to it. However, when I want to talk about rural areas, all of a sudden I do not have a right. Just cop on. We are here as national TDs for national issues. We can raise whatever we like. Rural life is in crisis because of the FDI economic model that this Government has encouraged from day one. I refer to centralisation. I do not agree with everything being centralised around Dublin or around Leinster. I do not agree with Dublin Airport's passenger cap being just lifted, for example. We should be decentralising. I do not agree with the lack of infrastructure and I do not agree with the housing crisis, which is making it very difficult for people to have homes-----
Sentiment score: -0.09
-----in rural Ireland.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I also do not agree with pubs, post offices and all of those things being lost in rural areas but those are the policies that are led by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael with whom the Minister of State is in government.
Sentiment score: -0.00
I want to raise some of the alternatives to fox hunting because I did not get a chance to mention them. To be clear, drag hunting is something with which I have absolutely no issue. It allows people to go out on horses or with their dogs. They follow an artificial scent across agreed routes. Clean boot hunting is another one that is being done in the UK. What this Bill does not deal with is a number of things. It does not deal with shooting. Somebody can shoot a fox. The Bill does not mention it. When you are drafting a Bill, if something does not get mentioned, it means it is not in it. We heard issues from Sinn Féin and that it was its members' position at its Ard-Fheis, that they have had a debate. Gun clubs were mentioned continually. This is nothing to do with gun clubs; this is about fox hunting. It was also said that people do not go out with a cruel intent. It does not matter about their intent. If the end object is that a fox will be caught and killed in a prolonged way, it is cruel. Drag hunting is an alternative Sinn Féin might argue for at its Ard-Fheis. I do not agree with this thin end of the wedge argument. We are dealing with one issue. We are dealing with fox hunting. Members vote on that and on that alone and they should leave the deliberate misrepresentation out of it. Deputy Kenny said he has had a groundswell of support. The groundswell of support has come from people in favour of the Bill. Let us be clear about that. There has been massive social media support and from the number of people who have got behind this in the seven months since I raised this on First Stage. Deputy Cronin talked about her personal beliefs colliding with her party, about how she has to go in and vote for this because united Ireland is her priority and she is involved in a collective struggle. First, there was a suggestion that I am splitting the left by raising stuff. I am going to come in and raise issues to do with anyone who is oppressed or animals that are being brutally treated. I cannot wait around for Sinn Féin to change its policy; I am sorry. If I had waited for that, we would not have had repeal. I was bringing repeal Bills in here. Sinn Féin was sitting socially conservatively on issues. I cannot wait for it to catch up. That is not why I was elected. I was elected to push things forward, not sit and wait for the rest to catch up. The only people who are splitting the left is people who do not agree that animal rights is a priority issue for the left. People who are serious about a progressive left would want to question why they cannot convince their party conference to get rid of fox hunting. They really should be able to push how important that is. Deputy Carthy talked about regulation. The problem is it is regulated and as we can see it is a free for all in reality because there is so much of it happening. I will finish that point by saying that TDs were mentioned because a number of TDs have told people when they were going to vote last year that they were against blood sports and fox hunting. People are absolutely entitled to contact those TDs and ask them to vote with us tonight. To say we are somehow targeting TDs, people should get a grip here. It included people in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael but it just so happens that a lot of TDs in Sinn Féin gave people the impression that the party was against fox hunting and against blood sports. Sinn Féin did not have its Ard-Fheis in the autumn. I understand it had to postpone it. That was a good reason to allow a free vote tonight as the party did not have time to change its position. However, everybody who voted last year - most people, certainly - would have expected that Sinn Féin was in line with this Bill. Regarding the hostility to rural life that is being talked about, there is a sell-out coming up on Mercosur and other EU issues. This Government is going to sell out the people it drums up in rural areas. To talk about fox hunting is a nice distraction for the Government, making it out that it is the big bad people from Dublin coming here taking all of their livelihoods away. I recognise that people do have livelihoods involved in this. I am absolutely open to discussion but I think there are alternatives.
Sentiment score: -0.02
I explained about the grant. The Minister of State obviously misunderstood what I said.
Sentiment score: 0.01
What I said-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
It is my time to speak now. I know the Minister of State finds that hard. The other issue is why we are talking about this now. The reason is that I get Private Members' time one and half times a year. That is why we are talking about it now. It is not a plot to make anyone look bad. It was either now or some time later. The reason it was put forward now was that it became a big issue in the Presidential election and I really thought a number of people would have caught up. On the thing about a grant, we had a briefing here last week. People from rural areas were there. We had a number of people here, such as Frankie Ward who has produced booklets talking about how this can be integrated into farming life. He has done surveys among sheep farmers and has talked about ways to protect livestock. One of the issues I raised on the grant was in the context of allowing hill farmers, who may be more open, obviously, to their sheep being taken, to have grants to help protect their sheep. The Minister of State is in government now, so that would have been something he could have helped with. There is a whole load of people who are going to come to the House tonight and press a button against this Bill. Some 80% of people are opposed to blood sports. Some 80% of people are opposed to fox hunting if you exclude the do-not-knows. It they are included, 73% were opposed to it in the last poll. They are from all around the country, rural and urban Ireland. We have a problem in this House. Three of the big parties are going to come in here and vote the exact opposite of what most of the population wants. They can make up any excuse they like, that they are representing rural Ireland or whatever else but the reality is there. That was why I called for a free vote, to at least allow TDs, who have given the general public the impression that they will uphold what they said they stood for, to express that. This is not a rural-urban issue. In conclusion, these are some of the comments from rural people who have contacted me. I mentioned Frankie Ward. Randal Plunkett is also here. I welcome the people who have attended - we have a packed Gallery - because we can see what an issue this is. Randal Plunkett, who runs the Dunsany nature reserve, has talked about the battle he has had getting these fox hunters to agree to keep off his land. They completely ignored him, he has gone to the police and nothing happens. That is the experience of loads of people throughout rural Ireland. I have testimony from a farmer in County Waterford as well about how they arrived unannounced on horseback or on foot. There are complaints about the Comeragh harriers. I could go on but I only have 15 seconds left. There is similar testimony from rural Galway. People in rural Ireland do not support fox hunting. The Minister of State has interests in tourism and maybe he is gaining financially from this, but there are very few people doing so in rural Ireland. There are other pursuits that could be encouraged to replace it.
Sentiment score: 0.06
We need to support what 80% of the population wants.
Sentiment score: 0.40