Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 31 January 2017
293. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the steps his Department has taken to ensure the effective participation of the general public in relation to the amendment of guidelines to the Dog Breeding Establishment Act 2010. [3265/17]
View answerIn late 2015, the then Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government agreed to begin a process of review of the current Dog Breeding Establishment (DBE) Guidelines, under the auspices of the County and City Management Association (CCMA) Dogs Working Group. The work undertaken to date has been to produce a first draft revision of the Guidelines. However, I considered it essential to broaden the review of the Guidelines to a more formal public consultation, both for quality assurance and to address the need for openness and inclusiveness. A wide-scale formal public consultative process commenced on Thursday, 1 December 2016 and will close on 28 February 2017.
Advertisements to announce the commencement of the public consultation were placed in the national newspapers and in the Irish Farmers Journal. The process was also extensively promoted through a press release from my Department, extensive coverage on national and online media, my Department’s Twitter account, local authorities and other stakeholders.
Written submissions, preferably in electronic format, on the draft revised DBE Guidelines must be submitted by 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday 28 February 2017 to:
- email: dbeguidelinesreview@housing.gov.ie
or
- by post to the Dog Control Unit, Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Government Buildings, Ballina, Co. Mayo. F26 E8N6.
Full details of the public consultation process are available on my Department’s website at http://www.housing.gov.ie/review-dog-breeding-establishments.
