I welcome the Bill from the Social Democrats. I support and welcome the Dog Welfare (Amendment) Bill and I support its core objectives, which I believe are to regulate the industry, improve standards in the industry and enhance public safety. There are good breeders in the country doing good work. Equally, there are some horrendous practices happening in the country. Therefore, it is only right that we seek to introduce a minimum standard. The Bill is important in terms of introducing vital protections, limits to breeding frequency, which is very important, and minimum standards for the care of dogs. Preventing overbreeding, age limits for female dogs, a minimum age of pups for separation and staff ratios are all really important. The lack of regulation and enforcement in this area is causing major difficulty for shelters right across the country. There are over 7,000 dogs in shelters in Ireland. Many of them are pedigree dogs and many have come from the breeding sector. This is quite incredible. The number of dogs euthanised in the country is increasing, and it has increased by 10% over the past year. I thank the shelters throughout the country. In my constituency, Mayo SPCA in Ballyhaunis is run by Ms Marian Biesty, a wonderful woman, and a team of volunteers. They do tremendous work. I have visited it many times. Ms Biesty won Mayo person of the year recently and it was very well deserved. North West SPCA in Ballina is also doing great work, as is the Mayo dog pound in Castlebar. This Bill would relieve some of the challenges and pressures these dog shelters face. I urge the Minister of State to prioritise this and to work with those on this side of the House to make sure that minimum standards in the industry are addressed. I want to raise the issue of sheep worrying around the country, in particular on the sheep plains in south Mayo. Some of the best sheep farmers are in south Mayo and in parts of north Mayo also. They are being terrorised by groups of individuals coming onto their lands and sheep worrying. I attended a meeting recently where I spoke to a young farmer who lost half his pedigree stock overnight. Several were savaged by dogs and others were caught in ditches, drains and rivers on the farm. The Bill would assist with this. I am particularly keen to ensure we have a system whereby the microchipping of all of these dogs and enforcement happens. In Mayo, there are only three dog wardens. It is an enormous county. There are very many occasions at weekends and evenings when no dog warden is on duty. Then gardaí are called but are simply not equipped to deal with it. Gardaí do not even have scanners to scan these dogs. This is how poorly equipped we are in the country to deal with this. The Bill will assist with this but there are significant steps we need to take on sheep worrying, microchipping and ensuring gardaí have the ability to protect farmers.

Sentiment score: 0.15