Heydon called on to secure full resources in budget for dog control
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has been called on to secure sufficient resources in Budget 2026 so his department can fulfil its new role as the sole department responsible for dog control.
The call was made by Caillin Conneely, the chair of the Irish Farmers' Association's (IFA's) Hill Farming Committee, who was speaking after a meeting of Comhairle na Tuaithe, a consultative and stakeholder body on rural recreation.
The meeting was dedicated to the issue of dog control, with Conneely saying afterwards: "Farmers are at breaking point. They are frustrated and sick of false promises.
"Understanding and empathy is one thing, but tangible action through legislative changes and more boots on the ground is another if we are to put a halt to the ongoing and growing incidence of irresponsible dog ownership, dog attacks and livestock worrying.
"What's there at the minute just isn't sufficient," Conneely said.
He added: "Some things could happen quite quickly, such as a centralised database. All enforcement authorities would have access to this, and it would identify individual dogs and the person responsible. Treatment or prescription of medicine for dogs should be limited only to those that are properly licenced and microchipped."
Conneely also called for sanctions that better reflect the damage caused by dogs, as well as targeted education and awareness campaigns.
The Comhairle na Tuaithe meeting heard from hill sheep farmer Pat Dunne (a predecessor of Conneely as IFA hill farming chair). According to the IFA, Dunne was one of the first farmers in the country to get agreed access routes established.
Dunne commented: "I am definitely not anti-dog and anti-hill walkers, but an immediate ban on dogs, other than working dogs, on the farming land is the only solution at this stage.
"We gave permission to the hillwalker, not the dogs, and we need bye-laws introduced to deliver this. What's there at the minute just isn't working. It's not possible or practical to police existing provisions," Dunne added.
Outlining his own situation, he said: "We allowed access to our hill in 2007, first allowing dogs, only on leads, but we soon discovered that this wasn’t happening. Dogs were let off when on the hills and out of sight.
"We then brought in a ‘No Dogs Allowed’ policy. Most understood the potential risk dogs bring to the sheep and wildlife and were respectful of our wishes, but some, particularly in more recent years, met us with resistance, both verbally and physically."
He eventually had to remove access from his land for walkers.
"We need to take these enforcement obligations away from the farmer, because we have more to be doing and shouldn’t have to explain our wishes to strangers accessing our privately-owned land. We need bye-laws in place that ban non-working dogs on the uplands," Dunne said.
Matthew McGreehan, a member of the IFA sheep committee, said: "Our property rights are being taken for granted. Our livelihoods are under threat. We need laws strengthened because there is no law and order at the minute.
"Farmers are having to deal with abusive hill walkers with dogs more and more. Some elderly hill farmers are afraid to even tend to their sheep at this stage for fear of confrontation.
"Younger farmers are fed up with it too. I'd be afraid to go away for a day now in case my sheep would be chased [or] attacked while I'm away. It's relentless," McGreehan added.
He also called for an "outright ban of non-working dogs on the hills".
