Results 61-80 of 1,048,650 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Ciarán Cuffe OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Gary Gannon OR speaker:Brian Stanley OR speaker:Cormac Devlin OR speaker:Noel Grealish)

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Cormac Devlin: I hear what Mr. Gleeson is saying and I know it is a sensitive issue given the timeframe we are operating to right now, but if there were several slaughterhouses in operation and one slaughterhouse had a previous conviction or a conviction while in operation, does the current contract with the Department allow that same individual set up under a new name or a new entity and engage with a...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Cormac Devlin: A licence or whatever it may be.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Cormac Devlin: Sorry, it is an approval.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Cormac Devlin: I presume inspections would flow from that same question as well in terms of additional oversight, etc.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Cormac Devlin: I can appreciate that. Staying with the animal cruelty element of things, I know the Department was involved with the Department of Rural and Community Development in terms of the control of dangerous dogs. It is something I have raised with the Department of agriculture before. I know the stakeholder engagement group has been established, which is wonderful. Speaking of the licence or...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Cormac Devlin: What kind of timeline are we talking on that, roughly?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Cormac Devlin: In terms of the dogs issue, or cats or any other animals such as donkeys, you name it, that other shelters are looking after, and there are some specific shelters around the country that deal with specific types of animals for understandable reasons and then there are other mixed homes such as cat and dog homes, etc. I appreciate there is a split between Mr. Gleeson's Department and the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Cormac Devlin: That is some clarity on it. In terms of complaints, would the complaints about any particular pound or operator come directly to the Department?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Cormac Devlin: This is where it gets quite complex and this is part of the problem. What I was referring to earlier with Mr. Gleeson was that when he spoke of a root and branch approach, what I do not want to see is the equine sector being root and branch reviewed and certain criteria applied, if he can see what I am getting at here, and then in another section we are back here in a year's time talking...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Cormac Devlin: I appreciate that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Cormac Devlin: To be clear, nobody is saying that work is not essential and urgent. It is but I would like to hear from Mr. Gleeson that a similar approach will be taken across animal welfare within the Department to ensure we are not back talking about cats, dogs or other animals with a concern similar to that raised in the equine sector.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Cormac Devlin: Could Mr. Gleeson send the committee a note with the number of complaints received and concerns from the public about animal welfare in a more general sense? It may be specific to different categories of pounds or shelters. This is something we will return to when Mr. Gleeson returns to the committee.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Stanley: Mr. Gleeson is correct. The person with the animals could be somebody in difficult circumstances such as an elderly person with other issues. I have come across it. We accept that. The Department must operate with the policy it is given and it must operate within the law. One thing that surprised me as we started looking at this two weeks ago was that a person with a conviction three...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Stanley: Regarding EU law, we have a bit of latitude in this country as to what laws we can make. Unless there was some serious impediment - unless Ursula von der Leyen turns up and says "No, stop", and I would be surprised if she did - that is surely one area about which we are going to have to do something. It is bonkers to think that this could happen. The Department is working under strictures...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Stanley: It is not an area we can go into here regarding case law and so on but I would be surprised if there were no cases. I am rewinding my head in terms of what you would see coming before the courts and cases that stand out where somebody would be prohibited from keeping animals forever. That is not appropriate in every case but someone with a conviction three years and a day or a month ago...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Stanley: And the protection of animals and our food industry. Those two things need to be to the fore.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Stanley: The next speaker is Deputy Ó Cathasaigh. We will take ten minutes per member.

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Stanley: In regard to this question on biosecurity, now that we have the sea border in place between England, Scotland and Wales, and Ireland, in the ports of Belfast and Larne there is obviously a risk. We quite rightly have an open Border. I look forward to the day when there will not be a Border at all. However, have there been discussions with the people in control who supervise in the North at...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Stanley: I understand that. I asked is whether the Department is in contact with the people who do it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine (11 Jul 2024)

Brian Stanley: We should recall with foot and mouth disease that the fact we operated a sea border worked. Technically, some people might not be happy with it but the real world is the real world, and reality is reality. I want to get that reassurance.