In 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 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.
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 1 December 2016 and closed on 28 February 2017. My Department is currently reviewing the feedback received through the process before submitting the findings to me. I would expect to be in a position to conclude the consideration of this matter later in Q2 2017.