Animal Welfare
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South

The Deputy will be aware that I have just concluded a public consultation on my new animal welfare strategy for 2026 to 2030, which I will introduce this year. I thank everybody who made contributions on that. Animal welfare crosses so many different areas. The control of dogs legislation came back in under my Department since last summer with some significant work. I am really happy about that. As part of the negotiating team on the programme for Government I was very keen on this. There had been a fragmented nature to the control the dogs. It was under the Department of rural affairs but my Department has the main responsibility for animal welfare legislation, as the Deputy is aware from his other work. I am also mindful that the role of animal wardens and animal welfare officers in our local authority system remains under the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, but it is better co-ordinated. There is a huge opportunity for us, working together across this House, to identify ways of improving the structures around animal welfare while also ensuring the very high level of enforcement that exists at present continues. We really do take animal welfare very seriously. It is something I am passionate about. I want to continue this and grow it in the future.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29