Agriculture minister comments on knackery closures in wake of greyhound controversy

The greyhound controversy should not lead to a 'rush' to shut knackeries because of the 'critical' function they perform, according to the Minister for Agriculture.

Minister Micheal Creed was responding to Dáil questions about the treatment of greyhounds as revealed in RTÉ Investigates.

Deputy Catherine Murphy asked him if he plans to shut down knackeries in breach of regulations.

"In so far as there may be shortcomings in our own regulations and in so far as there may be a requirement to prosecute in terms of where breaches of the law exist, the Department is considering all of those matters now," replied the Minister.

"But in terms of closing down knackeries, I think we should make haste slowly here. These perform a really critical function. There may be breaches of regulations or there may be weaknesses in the law as regards how they operate in the disposal of pets and that is an issue which we will look at," he said.