Animal Welfare
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-18
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Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel

This legislation is very important and welcome. However, without a cap it will undo everything positive. It will legitimise and entrench puppy farms. It will be really disappointing if there is not a cap on that. What legal reasons are given for not including a cap? Is there a timeframe in which legislation will be drafted and brought before the Oireachtas because it can go on for quite a while? Did the public consultation responses or the dog control stakeholder groups suggest including a cap? If they did, why was it ignored? What were the legal reasons for ignoring it if they suggested putting a cap in place? A cap is critical to this.
The Minister mentioned 20 breeding female dogs on a site. That is just not right. Animal welfare cannot be done properly with 20 breeding females on one site. It is open to criminality and corruption as it currently stands and we need to clamp down. Has the Minister considered addressing the issues with websites such as dogs.ie , which are facilitating puppy farms and facilitating the deplorable conditions dogs are being kept in day in and day out?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-18