Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin have opposed legislation introduced by People Before Profit Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger to ban foxhunting and the Dáil voted against it on Wednesday night by 124 votes to 24.
Ms Coppinger said it was “ironic that the three big parties in the Dáil that profess to be nationalist maintain this when it has been banned in the UK for over 20 years”.
Describing fox hunting as “barbarism”, she said “there is overwhelming opposition” to it in Ireland, pointing to a survey showing 73 per cent of people rejected it and just 12 per cent expressed support.
Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman said: “There is simply no justifiable reason for this State to permit the hunting and killing of foxes with dogs.
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“It is not a reasonable method to control the fox population. It is not, as some have argued, a means of protecting biodiversity and it is not an intrinsic part of rural life in Ireland.”
Opposing the Bill, Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon said hunting “operates under clear codes of conduct, licensing, welfare standards and full insurance requirements”.
“Foxes are not a protected species under the wildlife Acts in Ireland and it is legal to hunt foxes.”
The Minister said it was not a “binary choice between being with us or against us”. To adopt this position “is deeply cynical and exploitative and it allows the serious issue of animal welfare to be used as a Trojan horse for a more divisive agenda”.
It was “deeply emotive” but “fox hunting represents a long-held tradition and is a part of a way of life for those involved.
He said people were employed in this sector and “it is entirely disproportionate to try to make criminals of these people overnight for engaging in an activity that, in many cases, stretches back generations”.
Sinn Féin agriculture spokesman Martin Kenny said Sinn Féin’s position is decided at its ardfheis. The “vast majority of people” recognise “that this is something that has been there for a very long time”.
His party colleague Réada Cronin said, however, she would continue to attempt to change her party’s position at its ardfheis, but “every politician has days when their personal beliefs collide with their obligations as a party member”.
She believed fox hunting is “abhorrent, cruel, savage and barbaric with no regard for animal welfare” but added “as a member of a political party I’m not a solo act” and she was bound by the party whip.
Labour’s Ged Nash supported the legislation and said “fox hunting is an anachronistic and inherently cruel practice that belongs to a past defined by hierarchy, elitism, exclusion, imperialism and the routine acceptance of animal suffering”. There is “nothing republican about fox hunting”.
Social Democrats spokeswoman Jennifer Whitmore said Mr Heydon had criticised people calling for a ban who had “never met anyone who has been on a hunt or, indeed, seen a hunt themselves”.
She said: “I don’t need to go on a hunt to know it’s cruel” or to go to a bullfight, dogfight or to see badger baiting to know they were cruel.
She said it was not an urban versus rural debate. Rural people who had contacted her wanting it banned included a sheep farmer in Cashel who said “the days of having large numbers of horses galloping through farmland in the wettest months of the year are long gone, and that fox hunting as a means of curtailing the population is a fallacy”.
A Wicklow constituent told her a hunt passed through their local area and the hounds entered their garden. “They split apart and savaged their beloved little dog.”
Minister of State for Agriculture Michael Healy-Rae supported the Bill, however, and said: “Whether it is hunters, shooters or whoever takes out the fox, I appreciate them for that. Farmers appreciate them for that.”
He said a friend had 13 hens, and one evening came home and 12 were gone. His son Dan “had 18 lambs taken this year in the springtime by the foxes”.
