Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 March 2014
123. Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of coursing meetings that were monitored by the National Parks and Wildlife Service in the 2013-14 season; if he will release the monitoring reports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14490/14]
View answerLicences were issued by my Department to the Irish Coursing Club (ICC) on behalf of their affiliated clubs under the Wildlife Acts to facilitate the tagging and capturing of hares for the purpose of hare coursing for the 2013/14 coursing season. Officials of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of my Department attend coursing meetings, as resources allow, to monitor compliance with the conditions of the licences. I am not in position at this stage to provide a final figure for the number of coursing meetings monitored by my Department during the 2013/14 coursing season as the season finished at the end of last month and not all monitoring reports by regional staff of the NPWS have been finalised yet. Following an examination of these reports they will be released as soon as possible subject to any requirements arising from possible investigations which may be required on foot of the reports.
