The Green Party’s deputy leader Catherine Martin TD was asked if she is “considering measures to prohibit or reduce the practice of hare coursing”.
The Dail Question from Independent TD for Laois-Offaly, Carol Nolan (who has previously voted against a ban on coursing) was submitted before it was announced that newly appointed Heritage Minister, Malcolm Noonan, would be deciding on the coursing licence application.
Deputy Martin - the current Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht - confirmed in her written response that an application had been received for licences to capture thousands of hares from the wild for a 2020/21 coursing season.
“The annual licence to capture and tag hares for the 2019/2020 coursing season was issued by my Department on 9th August last year,” it was stated in Minister Martin’s reply. “The licences granted by my Department in such instances include a range of conditions in relation to coursing hares which are designed to provide as much protection as possible to the conservation status of the hare. Arising from the outbreak last summer of the RHD2 virus which affects both rabbits and hares the initial licence was suspended and a revised more restrictive licence was subsequently issued to the Irish Coursing Club.”
Minister Martin has in the past condemned hare coursing as a “brutal ordeal”, and asked a previous Culture and Heritage Minister “if, in view of expert reports that hare numbers have significantly reduced here, she will consider a suspension of all hare hunting and use of wild hares in coursing in order that the population can regrow.”
Her party colleague Malcolm Noonan TD (Carlow-Kilkenny), who now has responsibility for the National Parks and Wildlife Service, will be the Minister making a decision on the coursing licence application.
Speaking during the Green Party’s “Our Environment and How We Protect It” online public meeting on Thursday, Minister Noonan branded the bloodsport “a cruel practice” and said “we all want to see hare coursing ended.”
He told viewers on Facebook Live that “unfortunately, we didn’t get a commitment on it in the Programme for Government”, adding “I want to see what I can do this year to put restrictions there”.
URGENT ACTION ALERT
Contact Minister Malcolm Noonan and urge him to refuse a 2020-21 hare coursing licence.
Malcolm Noonan TD
Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform
Tel: (01) 6183148
Email: malcolm.noonan@oireachtas.ie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/noonan_malcolm
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/votemalcolmnoonan1/
Urge Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tanaiste Leo Varadkar to respect the wishes of the majority and ban hare coursing and all bloodsports.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin
Leader, Fianna Fail
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie
Phone: 021-432 0088
Leinster House: 01–618 3000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@MichealMartinTD
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar
Leader, Fine Gael
Telephone: 01-619 4020
Email: leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: http://www.twitter.com/@LeoVaradkar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar
Please sign and share the petitions
Ban Blood Sports in Ireland Now
https://www.change.org/petitions/ban-blood-sports-in-ireland
Sinn Fein: Support a ban on cruel hare coursing
https://www.change.org/p/sinn-fein-support-a-ban-on-cruel-hare-coursing
Irish Government: Stop Giving Millions of Euro to Cruel Greyhound Racing
https://www.change.org/p/irish-government-stop-giving-millions-of-euro-to-cruel-greyhound-racing
Witness the cruelty of hare coursing in Ireland
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRkXOvbUPNNjMc6LShwiiXBfnDAPbykf