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

As I said, responsibility for canine welfare, and the control and breeding of dogs, has recently come into my Department. I fought for it in the programme for Government talks. I feel it is a better fit coming under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine because we also share the responsibility for animal welfare. I look forward to introducing legislation later this year to tighten up measures and make improvements in dog breeding and so on. I have said that previously on the floor of the House.
The public consultation on this animal welfare strategy, about which the Deputy asked her question, bears out the priority this represents in the public's mind. I mentioned what comprised the majority of the submissions that were made. Given the progress that was made in the last animal welfare strategy, this is an evolution. Obviously, we all take responsibility for animal welfare really seriously and we continue to evolve that. We have increased investment in that space. I look forward to establishing a new independently chaired advisory council on companion animal welfare. The public consultation phase will also feed into that. The dog control stakeholder group has a key role to play here as well.

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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