Animal Breeding
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-09
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Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South

We will get an opportunity to discuss all elements of this through the five Stages of the legislation when I introduce it to the House and get it cleared. I have not made a decision on the cap yet. I still have an open mind. I have advice from the Attorney General. There are challenges around it that we will get to discuss through the detailed phases of the legislation. Are we comparing like with like in terms of the sizes of premises, such as the difference between a garage and a warehouse? There are challenges and there could be complexities in the law in that regard. However, measures are being proposed in the heads of the Bill. We have 17 heads already, so it is quite a detailed draft Bill. We have measures in there that will naturally limit how many dogs somebody can have, as well as the capping in terms of staffing and how many litters the dog can have. These are all measures we will work through.
The Deputy mentioned funding. Obviously, I work closely with the Minister, Deputy Browne, with his responsibility over local authorities and the dog wardens. However, through my Department, I fund animal welfare charities to the tune of over €6 million, which is a huge increase on the €2.4 million that was paid out to them in 2020. We have continuously invested more in the area of animal welfare and in this area.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-09