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

We are very much at one on this. This is something I want to work on with colleagues. This is something we discussed in the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party. It will also be debated and discussed at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food, and beyond the House, working with my colleagues at the Department of agriculture, the Ministers of State, Deputies Dooley, Grealish and Healy-Rae. It transcends and covers all parts of society. I genuinely believe, as somebody who grew up on a farm with animals, that you can judge a person by how they treat animals. If you teach a child to treat animals well, they will probably also treat humans well. This gets to the heart of our core values as a country. This goes to the Deputy's points on domestic animals as well as farm animals. Obviously, the enforcement of animal welfare legislation is a key component in our trade element because of our very high standards. We normally talk about high environmental standards and high traceability standards but our high animal welfare standards are a very important part of the higher value markets that we export into. I am determined to build on this and to grow it. Although we have extremely high standards that are beyond the European norm, there are always things we can do better and improve and I will drive on further with them.

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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