Greyhound care homes received €488k to home just 65 dogs

Taxpayer money worth nearly half a million euro was handed over to two greyhound care centres in 2023 and 2024, yet just 65 dogs were rehomed by the two facilities in that time, TDs and Senators were told at a cross-party meeting in Leinster House last week.

The figures, revealed by Greyhound Action Ireland, show that in 2024 alone the two care homes — based in Croom, Co Limerick and Kilcullen, Co Kildare — received a combined €291,000 but managed to home just 36 dogs between them.

That equates to an average cost of €8,083 per dog homed.

By contrast, the ISPCA received €1.2 million from Budget 2024 to run its entire homing and enforcement operation and still managed to rehome 1,382 dogs.

Deel Sighthound Rescue in Limerick, a small privately-run rescue group, was granted just €15,600 and successfully homed 143 dogs, including 23 ex-racing greyhounds.

Speaking at the meeting that took place on Tuesday, May 27, Greyhound Action Ireland spokesperson Nuala Donlon called for an urgent investigation into what exactly Greyhound Racing Ireland’s money was spent on.

“When you compare the record of Greyhound Racing Ireland’s two care homes with that of other rescue groups in terms of state funding and numbers of animals homed, then you quickly realise that the Irish greyhound board have serious questions to answer in terms of what they are spending such huge sums of taxpayers’ money on,” Ms Donlon said.

Greyhound Racing Ireland (GRI), which operates under the Department of Agriculture, receives around €20 million in annual state funding, a portion of which is allocated to homing retired greyhounds.

Critics have long argued that this system allows thousands of greyhounds to be bred for racing, with many of them facing uncertain futures once their careers end.

Ms Donlon told the Oireachtas members that the funding arrangement has become “ludicrous”.

“We now have the ludicrous situation in this country where the government is giving circa 20 million euros every year to an organisation to produce thousands of unwanted greyhounds.

“And hundreds of thousands of euros more to the same organisation to home a tiny handful of the unwanted dogs produced.”

She also criticised the inefficiency of the spending, comparing the cost of rehoming 36 greyhounds to the now-infamous cost of Leinster House’s new bike shed.

She urged those present to back Greyhound Action Ireland’s call for an independent inquiry into how public money is being used.

“This is a staggering use of public funds,” Ms Donlon said, “and it demands scrutiny.”

The meeting heard strong calls for transparency and accountability around how state funding for greyhound care is distributed and monitored.

A full breakdown of costs, outcomes and oversight is now being demanded from the relevant authorities.

Greyhound Racing Ireland has yet to respond to the latest claims.