Bill to try to ban hare coursing set for Dáil debate and vote 

By Darren J. Prior 

A bill to ban hare coursing in Ireland will be debated in the Dáil today. 

Paul Murphy TD (People Before Profit) has introduced the bill, and last week he held a press conference with Conor Dowling of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA), Aideen Yourell of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports (ICABS) and Laura Broxson of the National Animal Rights Association (NARA) to explain the bill to the public and the media.

The bill will be voted on at its First Stage vote in the Dáil next Wednesday, 8 July.

The other parties supporting the bill are the Social Democrats, the Labour Party and the Green Party. Some independent TDs also support the bill.

Speaking before the debate, Conor Dowling of the NSPCA said:

“The Irish hare is an iconic native species that has been protected in law for almost a century, yet thousands are still captured from the wild each year for hare coursing.

“It is impossible to imagine the fear experienced by these wild animals when they are captured, confined and pursued by dogs for the sake of entertainment.

“The NSPCA believes that hare coursing has no place in a modern Ireland and urges all TDs to support the Bill on 2 July.”

Speaking at the press conference, Aideen Yourell of the ICABS said:

“The Irish Council Against Blood Sports commends Deputy Paul Murphy’s Private Member’s Bill to ban hare coursing.

“We call on Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin to support the Bill and/or allow a free vote on this animal cruelty issue.

“Seventy-seven per cent of Irish citizens, according to a RED C poll in 2019, want to see hare coursing banned, so our parliamentarians need to respect the clear wishes of the majority.

“That is their duty”.

Hare coursing is banned in Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland, leaving the Republic of Ireland as “the last bastion of backwoods barbarism”.

“It’s way past time for this appalling cruelty to be banned,” Ms Yourell said.

Paul Murphy, speaking at the press conference he organised, welcomed that Sinn Féin recently voted in favour of banning fox hunting at their last Ard Fheis in Belfast and appealed to the party “to continue that commitment to animal welfare by voting for a ban on hare coursing to match the ban that has been in place in the North since 2011.”

At the time of going to press, a Government spokesperson had stated that Government TDs would vote against the legislation, to which Paul Murphy TD responded:

“Simon Harris just recently said that there should be more free votes on matters of conscience. But apparently hares don’t qualify for Fine Gael conscience.

“I hope that some backbenchers defy the whip and vote in line with 77% of the public who want to see hare coursing banned.”