The report stated an annual sum agreed by the Government to be allocated to the greyhound industry, and this included the €20m that is due to be allocated in 2022 (“only” €17m was given in the end).īut after that, there is a big question mark. Crucially, the report set out a five-year plan for the redemption of the greyhound industry, which was dependent on Government funding. This report discusses, in detail, the challenges and problems facing an industry in decline. In 2018, a report titled ‘Strategic Plan 2018-2022’ was published by the Irish Greyhound Board. Secondly, this money for greyhounds will not continue forever: I have written about this before, but just to go over it again. This does not mean that it’s “good”, but it does need to be noted. I absolutely agree that this seems outrageous, and there are just two points that I would make about this that are often missed.įirstly, the greyhound funding is not from general taxpayers’ money: it’s from the Horse and Greyhound Fund, which comes directly from taxes on betting, so arguably this is greyhound people’s money funding greyhounds. There is always a comparison made with this money (less than €4m) and the money given to greyhound racing (In October, €17.6m was announced as a grant to Greyhound Racing Ireland from the Horse & Greyhound Fund). Someone always gets more, someone always gets less, and it’s so easy for people to feel aggrieved. The second point is that whenever funds are dished out, it’s always going to be impossible to make everyone happy. So it needs more money to do this effectively. If they didn’t get this funding, prosecutions would not take place, and animal welfare would suffer.Īlso, the Irish Blue Cross get a mammoth €330,000, but you need to remember that it does a different type of extra job, not done by other charities: it provides subsidised veterinary care for the pets of people who can’t afford to go to the vet, at its base in Inchicore as well as through their mobile clinics. So clearly they need extra funding to employ the authorised officers to do this work, and to pay for the costs of court cases etc. The Gardaí don’t do this, in general: the job is delegated by our society to these two charities. In addition to not being registered, the conditions on the property fell below the standards required.įirst, DSPCA and ISPCA have an extra duty that other groups don’t have: they have the job of enforcing animal welfare laws. One of 53 dogs found by the ISPCA on a Co Offaly premises as well as six litters of pups. I understand the concerns about this, but there are two points that are sometimes missed. And everyone knows that these smaller groups do a mammoth amount of work.
For example, the DSPCA gets €615,000 and the ISPCA gets €670,000, while Cork Dog Action Welfare Group only gets €38,500, West Cork Animal Welfare Group only gets €21,500 and Madra only get €17,000. There are always complaints that too much funding goes to the bigger charities, and not enough (or none) to smaller, hard-working, local ones. So the ex gratia funding is a way of putting a bit of pressure on towards maintaining standards. That’s not in the interests of the animals they are trying to help. There have been examples in the past of groups whose dedication has led them to take on too much work, resulting in too much pressure, leading to standards of care falling.
One of a number of dogs found in substandard and overcrowded living conditions in a Co Limerick property earlier this year. This bureaucracy can be tedious for animal rescue groups who are already overloaded with a work burden, but at the same time, it is a way of making sure that people do better on behalf of the animals they are helping.
In order to receive the funding, you need to complete application forms, achieving standards of care that are clearly set out. The funding is used as a way of improving standards amongst the many disparate, independent groups that work hard for animal welfare.
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