Under the terms of the Wildlife Acts licences are required by the Irish Coursing Club, covering their affiliated coursing clubs, if they wish to capture or tag hares for use at regulated hare coursing meetings. I gave approval last August to the granting of the annual licence to the Irish Coursing Club allowing its affiliated coursing clubs to net and tag hares for the purpose of hare coursing for the 2015/2016 coursing season. I should point out that I also decided to sanction two of the coursing clubs due to infringements of the conditions of the licences at coursing meetings held during the 2014/15 season. These sanctions, which were imposed on foot of reports from regional staff of the National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department, entail a reduction in the number of courses run by both clubs at their next meetings compared to the number of courses run at last year’s meetings. The meeting of Doon Coursing Club, one of the clubs I sanctioned, has now been cancelled by the Irish Coursing Club following a recent prosecution case taken by my Department against members of the Club for illegal hunting of hares on State lands. I welcome this decision by the ICC as it an indication of the seriousness with which they view this issue.
While the muzzling of greyhounds at coursing meetings is a matter for my colleague the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, it is my understanding that the Irish Coursing Club has had mandatory muzzling of greyhounds at regulated coursing meetings since the early 1990s. The muzzling of greyhounds has proved effective in reducing the number of hares injuries and deaths at coursing meetings. For example, the percentage of hares released back into the wild after coursing meetings last season was the highest figure to date at 99.49%.