Animal Welfare
Dail Éireann — 2025-10-14
============================================================

George Lawlor (LAB), Wexford

I welcome what has been said about the high level group. As it stands, the 2010 Act permits upwards of 300 breeding dogs on a site. It also outlines that one full-time staff member to 25 breeding bitches is sufficient. We are looking for a more sensible number of breeding bitches and we believe that 15 is a sensible cap that would enable breeders to run a proper sanitation programme and perform regular welfare acts on all the animals. The staff-to-dog ratio should be set at 1:15 and this should be set out in the legislation as opposed to being contained in dog breeding establishment guidelines. The cap on breeding bitches that is specified should only increase in tandem with the staff headcount, to guarantee that minimum standards of animal healthcare are met.
We have a serious problem in Ireland with animal welfare in breeding establishments. This is something we simply have to grab by the scruff of the neck and tackle. I welcome the Minister's comments in that regard.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-10-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-10-14