A widely shared figure in the debate on hare coursing has been disputed by a party leader.

People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy has described the €70.7 million economic value of hare coursing as “unbelievable”.  

The Dublin South-West TD had put forward a bill to ban hare coursing that was voted on in the Dáil last night (July 8), with 125 Dáil members eventually voting against the ban, and 24 voting for it.

In a statement, Deputy Murphy said: “In the debate last week on my bill to ban hare coursing, Minister Niall Collins said: ‘In 2022, an independent economic analysis estimated that coursing contributed approximately €70.7 million annually to the Irish economy.’

“The same figure was repeated on the airwaves by other Fianna Fáil TDs and by the Irish Coursing Club.”

However, Deputy Murphy claimed that the report with this claim has been “impossible” to find.

He added that during Leaders Questions, he asked Taoiseach Micheál Martin about the report, who said "he hasn’t seen it either”.

During the discussion Deputy Murphy referred to, the Taoiseach said: “The provenance of the report is not something that I have knowledge of.”

Report

In his statement, the TD added: “There have been some references to a 2021 report by Jim Power, ‘The Economic and Financial Significance of the Irish Greyhound Industry’, as the source of the €70 million figure."

However, Deputy Murphy cited a recent comment by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon, in which the minister said that the report did not specify an economic value for hare coursing.

Deputy Murphy described the €70.7 million figure as “unbelievable” and added that because the report has not been published, it cannot be scrutinised.

He added: “The debate on the bill has been ‘informed’ by important claims by a junior minister and Fianna Fáil TDs that cannot be substantiated, not even by the government itself.

"This is bizarre.”