Paul Murphy: Calls to Ban Hare- Coursing and Expose Report

I want to start by paying tribute to the Crelane abuse survivors who have had to, they shouldn't have had to, but have had to fight tirelessly for justice in the face of a conspiracy by the church and a cover-up and absolute obstruction by the state. Taoiseach, tonight TDs have an opportunity to ban the barbaric practice of hair-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, being crammed into crates then into enclosures with other hares despite them being solitary animals. And then to make them run for their lives from dogs that are ten times their size. 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're opposed to hair-coursing and they want to vote against it. What's your position Taoiseach? Are you personally in favour of hair-coursing? Do you think it's okay to torture wild animals for fun or for gambling? Are you going to let your TDs vote with their conscience 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. There's a new poll published this morning which confirms that the vast majority of people right across this country are opposed to hair-coursing. We know there's no urban-rural divide on this issue despite what the tiny minority of people who enjoy torturing animals try to make out. But 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, Minister Niall Collins said quote 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. But this is a very elusive report Taoiseach, shyer than the hair itself. It was supposedly done in 2022 but literally was not mentioned anywhere until last week. There were parliamentary questions 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 their 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 euros of hair coursing but which conveniently in four years hasn't been published so nobody can actually scrutinise it. It's all a bit mysterious Taoiseach wouldn't you agree? Have you seen this report and do you agree that this report if it exists at all needs to be published before the vote so that TDs can assess for themselves what the supposed economic benefit of continued cruelty and barbarism towards Irish hairs is? First of all thank the Deputy for raising the issue and in the first instance each political party has its own rules in respect of a vote of conscience and in the government party's situation it's in respect of human life issues and that's well known across the political system and then parties vote in accordance with internal debates and under the whip system and that is the position. And coursing is regulated more tightly here and significantly tightly here as a result of previous legislation. The post-ban experience in Britain and Northern Ireland witnessed a rise in illegal hunting, poaching and actually the need for dedicated police operations so if you over-regulate or ban it can lead to worse practices as well and I think that's something that has to be factored into this and more generally I think you have to bring in terms of any change in practice or whatever you do have to bring people with you. I can recall earlier periods in this house when other practices were legislated for and the campaigns that developed around it were far in excess of the specific issue in other words people felt that their entire way of life was going to be challenged and so the health and welfare act of or the animal health and welfare act of 2013 has very specific regulatory protections involved with far greater penalties in terms of violation of the regulations in respect of hair coursing and the regulated muzzled coursing operated chiefly by the Irish Coursing Club exists under a significant overlapping statutory framework so the Wildlife Act of 1976-2018, the Animal Health and Welfare Act of 2013, the Open Seasons Order 2005, the Graham Industry Act of 1958 and ICC rules directives and guidance notes. Coursing licences carry 44 separate conditions overseen by the National Parks and Wildlife Services and those coursing meetings are supervised by the NPWS to ensure compliance with those 44 conditions associated with the section 32 and 34 licences issued by the Minister of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. A panel of pre-coursing inspectors selected for hair expertise inspects every club in advance of a meeting and issues a certificate to courses only where standards are met and there's a monitoring committee involving the Department of Agriculture, ICC and the NPWS to monitor developments in coursing and the situation is kept under constant review to ensure that this is done in accordance with the law and the regulatory framework that governs. Deputy Murphy. Thanks I mean the Taoiseach says you have to bring people with you but the people are miles ahead of the politicians on this one so in today's poll when you exclude undecided 74% of people support a ban on hair coursing and the poll number of years ago was 77% higher in rural areas than in urban areas so the problem that the people often face is that they have to try to drag the politicians with them because this place remains an outlier compared to society at large where you're going to have potentially a majority support for hair coursing. Second thing we've heard again and again and again about this industry being highly regulated. I mean the whole essence of the thing is terrorising hares. It doesn't have animal welfare at its heart despite what a Fianna Gael TD tried to suggest in the debate on Thursday. The hares actually don't enjoy it they actually don't they're not running for the laugh they're running because they're utterly terrified by dogs that are 10 times their size. Third thing and I'll go again Taoiseach on the question of the report. It's very very troubling that in the debate the government relied on a figure from a report that hasn't been produced that cannot be analysed that cannot be scrutinised. How can people vote when they're told that there's 70 million euros from Irish coursing right which doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Taoiseach to respond. Deputy time is up. Taoiseach has your point. I haven't seen the report and I to be frank which I haven't been assessed the providence of the report is not something that I have knowledge of in term but it's not surprising that people would have done studies in this and would have done analysis but it's more than just economics in any event and when I said about bringing people I mean I think there are people in rural Ireland who would have diametrically different approaches to or opinions to you or approach and there are and that's what I meant in terms of engaging with society on these matters because over time people have felt that their way of life no matter how much it might be alienating to your perspectives or other people's perspectives is under sustained attack and threat. Now whether that's justified or not that's the reality and in many ways these measures can actually create a counter reaction that's far disproportionate to the actual specific issues that have been raised here from time to time. So yes that is a factor in our society whether you like it or not and that ultimately has manifestations that are much broader than the specific issue of hair coursing itself. Thank you.