Personal friends: Greyhound board chairman and Pat Deering TD

Описание: The chairman of a parliamentary committee dealing with greyhound industry legislation has admitted that the head of the Irish Greyhound Board is a "personal friend of mine".

Pat Deering TD (Fine Gael, Carlow Kilkenny) made the comment at the start of a May 2nd meeting at which ICABS and Greyhound Rescue Association of Ireland highlighted animal cruelty and dog doping in the industry.

Deputy Deering, the chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine announced that he wanted to put on record that "the chairperson of the Irish Greyhound Board, Mr Phil Meaney...is a personal friend of mine" - see    • Greyhound industry cruelty highlighted at ...  

As highlighted previously by ICABS, Phil Meaney (who recently appeared on the front of the Sporting Press newspaper alongside an individual banned from greyhound racing in Australia after he was filmed at a "barbaric and inhumane" live animal baiting session) was Patrick Deering TD's director of elections in the 2011 General Election. The Department of Agriculture confirmed at the time that Mr Meaney was "a member of the executive committee of the Irish Coursing Club and a member of the finance committee of the Irish Coursing Club".

Mr Meaney was subsequently appointed to the position of chairman of the Irish Greyhound Board. According to the Irish Independent of May 1st 2011, "The Government was in one hell of a hurry to appoint Mr Meaney to the top Irish Greyhound Board job. [Agriculture Minister Simon] Coveney even admitted to having been politically lobbied, but insisted that was not a factor...Fine Gael Carlow TD, Pat Deering, conceded that he had lobbied on behalf of Mr Meaney."

Deputy Deering has shamelessly defended cruel hare coursing. In June 2016, he was among the 114 TDs who voted against Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan's bill which sought to ban coursing. KCLR radio later reported that "Pat Deering has described as invalid, claims by animal rights activists that hare coursing represents cruelty to animals." This despite him being provided with evidence of hare injuries and deaths.

In December 2016, Pat Deering voted in favour of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2016 which granted €80 million of taxpayers' money to the horse and greyhound racing industries - €64 million to horse racing and €16 million to greyhound racing.

Watch a video of the meeting
   • Greyhound industry cruelty highlighted at ...  

Read a transcript of the meeting
http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.i...

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