Animal Welfare
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-18
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Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South

The strengthened improvement notice regime will explicitly empower authorised officers to require a reduction in the number of dogs on premises where welfare concerns arise. Local authorities also retain the ability to set conditions on the number of breeding females as part of the registration process and this avenue remains open to them, particularly in respect of new applications. It is about putting best practice into place.
While non-statutory guidelines for dog breeding establishments were published in 2018, these set out advisory best practices but were not legally binding. That has been the big challenge here. Several of the amendments proposed by the Bill will now give legislative force to recommendations contained in those guidelines, which is a significant step forward. I look forward to bringing in this legislation soon and I have no doubt we will have many opportunities throughout all Stages of that legislation to discuss it here in the Seanad, in the Dáil and in the committee.

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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