Sir, – Today the Dáil will debate a Bill sponsored by Maureen O’Sullivan TD that aims to ban live hare coursing in Ireland. Would it be too much to expect that TDs of all parties and groupings be allowed a free vote on this Bill?
A previous attempt by the late Tony Gregory TD to end this blood sport, in 1993, was defeated by a huge margin (104 to 16), not for lack of lack of support in the Dáil or among the general public, but simply because Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour imposed the whip in opposition to the Bill. A lot has changed since 1993. Hare coursing has been since outlawed in Britain and Northern Ireland.
This is a different Ireland and we have now supposedly entered the age of “new politics”. So I earnestly hope that the party whips will be set aside for the vote on the anti-hare coursing Bill. This is clearly a conscience issue and the vote will have no implications either way for the country’s economic wellbeing or the Government’s survival. A free vote would allow TDs, to cite the old aphorism, to run with the hare or hunt with the hounds, as preferred. And democracy would be the winner. – Yours, etc,
JOHN FITZGERALD,
Callan,
Co Kilkenny.