INDEPENDENT TD Michael Lowry has come out against controversial Green Party legislation on animal welfare and said he would not be voting for it unless changes are made.
Last Friday seven Fianna Fáil TDs spoke against a Bill to ban stag hunting which will be voted on in the Dáil tomorrow evening.Debate on legislation to regulate dog breeding, which has also provoked divisions in the Coalition, will begin on Friday with a vote next week.
Mr Lowry, who has supported the Fianna Fáil-Green Coalition since it took office three years ago, said both pieces of animal welfare legislation were creating an urban-rural divide.
“I don’t think it is good politics by the Green Party to be pushing such divisive legislation at this stage when we as a nation are battling with an economic crisis of such proportions,” said Mr Lowry.
“The Greens have done well out of being in Government and are politically unwise to be pushing rural Fianna Fáil TDs into a corner on these issues.”
Mr Lowry will meet Government chief whip John Curran tomorrow to discuss the Green legislation and amendments put forward by Minister for the Environment John Gormley.
Jackie Healy-Rae, the other Independent who backs the coalition, has made it clear he is prepared to vote for the ban on stag hunting as have two Dublin Independent TDs, Finian McGrath and Maureen O’Sullivan.
It was still not clear at the weekend if any of the seven Fianna Fáil TDs who spoke against the ban on stag hunting in the Dáil are prepared to defy the Government whip tomorrow.
Most of them are expected to support the Bill but there are some doubts about the intentions of former junior minister Mary Wallace, from Meath East, who has refused to say what she intends to do.
At the weekend, campaigners against the Bill claimed they were on the verge of a “historic victory”.
Rural Ireland Says Enough (Rise) spokesman Liam Cahill told protesters gathered in Trim on Saturday that “we have the votes and we will have the votes on Tuesday” in reference to their attempts to find four Government TDs who will not back the proposed Bill which bans the Ward Union Hunt in Co Meath.
Rise is also lobbying to have the Dog Breeding Establishments Bill amended to exclude hunting dogs.
The campaigners are hoping that former junior minister and Meath TD Mary Wallace and Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath will vote against the Bills or abstain.
They have also been lobbying former ceann comhairle John O’Donoghue and Cork TD Christy O’Sullivan.
Ward Union Hunt chairman Christy Reynolds said it was “four days to get four votes” and he urged local Meath TD Johnny Brady, who spoke against the legislation in the Dáil last week, to “get together with his comrades, hold hands and make the right decision” when it comes to voting for the Bill.
“Take the Ward Union down next Tuesday and I guarantee you the hare hunting will be next.”
Mr Reynolds accused Minister for the Environment John Gormley of failing to consult with Ward Union Hunt before going ahead with the legislation. He said in the last 10 years they had released about 500 stags with between four and five fatalities, less than in incidents involving deer in the Phoenix Park.
National Association of Regional Game Councils director Des Crofton said the Government was guilty of the “same perverse logic” that saw Tony Blair’s Government devote 700 hours of parliamentary time to fox-hunting and only 12 hours to the decision to go to war in Afghanistan.