Animal Welfare
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-19
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Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South

I have a response here to the question the Deputy put down on the animal welfare strategy. The term of Ireland’s Animal Welfare Strategy 2021-2025: Working Together for Animal Welfare, our first ever animal welfare strategy, reached a conclusion at the end of last year. In 2025, a process was initiated to develop a new animal welfare strategy, which will act as a framework for engagement and collaboration to direct future activities with the aim of benefiting both animals and Irish society. Development of the strategy is now well under way following broad stakeholder engagement, including a non-statutory public consultation that was launched on 19 November and ran to 2 January. In excess of 1,750 individual submissions were received as part of that process.
In moving to the drafting stage, my Department will work through the issues arising from this consultation and other issues in this area, both from a national and international, particularly EU, perspective, as a final document evolves for publication, which I hope and anticipate will be in quarter 2 of this year. The new strategy will continue to adopt a one-health-one-welfare approach, acknowledging and valuing the interdependencies between human, animal and environmental health, and taking an evidence-led approach to policymaking, target-setting, monitoring and evaluation.
There was quite a variance in the topics raised in those 1,750 submissions. Some 1,250 individual submissions referenced a wide variety of issues; 123 were more substantive in nature; and 376 submissions were campaign-type submissions on one specific issue. Analysis of the totality of the submissions demonstrates that canine welfare, including control and breeding, is an issue of importance to the public.
This is a new area for me. I take on board the points the Deputy raised on the greyhound industry. I do not intend to ban greyhound racing here. It will not be a surprise to the Deputy to hear me to say that. The control of dogs from the pet perspective was the dominant issue raised in the public submissions to my Department. I am glad to have responsibility for it now and I am working on it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-19