Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 November 2012
191. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Finance if he will invest in more sniffer dogs to fight the war against the illegal importation of drugs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52394/12]
View answerI am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that their Customs Service currently deploys 15 detector dog teams at strategic locations throughout the country. This figure includes two new teams, which are in the course of being commissioned and which will be fully operational from December 2012. The dogs are used to detect drugs, tobacco and cash and are used at ports, airports, mail centres, express courier depots and are also used to assist in the course of certain investigations. Passive response’ dogs are used as this maximises their capability, enabling the screening of passengers in addition to merchandise and baggage.
The Deputy may also be interested to note that where previously dogs were trained and deployed to detect only one commodity, where feasible newly deployed dogs are now trained to detect more than one.
The current number of teams, including the 2 new teams about to be deployed represents an increase of 25% in the number of dog teams deployed by Revenue since 2007 and an increase of 150% since 1993. There are no immediate plans for a further increase but the commissioning and deployment of dog detector teams is subject to ongoing evaluation by Revenue.
