Ireland will not follow Scotland and Wales in banning greyhound racing, Minister says

IRELAND WILL NOT move to ban greyhound racing, despite both the Scottish and Welsh parliaments voting to outlaw it this week. 

Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon told the Dáil yesterday that he does not intend to implement a ban here, after the matter was raised by Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger. 

Scotland’s Greyhound Racing (Offences) Bill was supported by 70 votes to 27, with 19 abstentions on Wednesday. It will make it an offence to operate a racing track for greyhounds and for a dog owner to race their animal on one.

The vote came after the Senedd in Wales voted to ban the sport a day earlier in a move hailed by campaigners as a “landmark moment for dog welfare”.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Ruth Coppinger said the government had given €20m to the greyhound industry in Budget 2026, while only €6m was allocated to animal welfare charities. 

She pointed to figures from Dogs Trust Ireland that 869 dogs have died on Irish racetracks in the last six years and that 2,343 have been injured. 

Asking for progress on the government’s new Animal Health Strategy, Coppinger said Ireland is going to be “a complete and utter outlier” because “the international consensus is to ban” greyhound racing. 

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“Racing at speed on oval tracks is dangerous for dogs in extreme weather. They have poor diet, very little enrichment in their lives and very little traceability,” she said.

“It is not widely supported in our society any more because people have seen the dangers of having a racing industry that is just propped up by the State and is cruel for the animals involved.”

Heydon, whose Department recently became responsible for canine welfare and the control and breeding of dogs, described her comments as “a dreadful slight on the thousands of people who work in our greyhound racing industry and who love the dogs and care for them greatly”. 

“I do not intend to ban greyhound racing here. It will not be a surprise to the Deputy to hear me to say that,” he said.

Heydon said funding to welfare charities increased from €2.4m in Budget 2020 to over €6m “distributed to over 100 organisations in 2023, 2024 and 2025″.

He also said financial support his Department provides to the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund has also seen “increased allocations towards the area of welfare”.

Heydon confirmed that development of the new Animal Welfare Strategy ”is now well under way”. He said a public consultation received over 1,750 submissions. The dominant issue raised was “the control of dogs from the pet perspective”. 

The Fine Gael TD said he is looking forward to introducing legislation later this year “to tighten up measures and make improvements in dog breeding”.

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