Departmental Funding
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-12
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Ruth Coppinger (PBP), Dublin West

It is unbelievable that he cannot sit and listen. I get little enough time to raise this topic. Elephants have half the lifespan in Dublin Zoo. Matriarchy and family are very important for elephants. These two sister elephants were split up. We should not be spending money sending children to zoos. Any money for conserving species and biodiversity would be better spent out in the wild where there are very good programmes under way, rather than diverting it to Victorian concepts like zoos. Many other issues with animals have been reported. The NPWS does not have zoology expertise. It is also very close in relations to the management of Dublin Zoo. The Minister of State should meet zoo keepers and give them more funding and more space and time to deal with the animals, but we really should be phasing out zoos.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-12