THERE WERE sharp exchanges between Minister for the Environment John Gormley and Fine Gael TDs during the final stage debate on the controversial Bill regulating so-called puppy farms.

The Dog Breeding Establishments Bill was supported by Labour and some Independents and was passed by 92 votes to 50. Fine Gael and Sinn Féin opposed the legislation while Tipperary South FF TD Mattie McGrath also voted against the the Bill.

He lost the party whip last week when he voted, in the Dáil electronic vote, against the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill banning stag hunting. The Government had a majority of just one, 69 votes to 68, in a division on an amendment.

Mr Gormley said he had managed to do something that defied many people: he had brought together Fine Gael and Sinn Féin, which was quite a feat.

Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan said the Minister could not bring Fianna Fáil with him on the issue until yesterday.

“Fianna Fáil deputies know the Minister is quite capable of dealing with everyone on the opposite side and does not need any assistance,” said Mr Gormley.

The Minister accused Fine Gael of buying into a campaign of vilification.

“Fine Gael is operating hand in glove with Rise! (Rural Ireland Says Enough) which is regrettable,” he added.

“Let us deal with the legislation before us, which is a good item of legislation that addresses concerns and will allay the concerns of many people.” He claimed Fine Gael had stoked up the matter and would continue to do so.

Mr Hogan said he was delighted to hear that the Minister was now engaging with stakeholders, given that he had found it difficult to do so for a while.

“I know he has had various meetings in recent times, but he caused a lot of angst to his Government backbenchers by his lack of interest in all sorts of dialogue until the gun was put to his head, effectively, in the last week or so,” said Mr Hogan. He said there was no documentation available about the agreement the Minister had reached, whereby the Bill’s animal welfare provisions would be dealt with by way of amending the 1958 Greyhound Industry Act.

He accused Mr Gormley of “waving the big stick” over the Minister for Agriculture regarding the amending of the Act.

“He is asking him to bring in animal welfare regulations and put them on a statutory basis and, at the same time, he is saying that he gives himself powers for a commencement order on animal welfare to be brought in on January 1st, 2011, in the event that he does not reach agreement,” he added.

Sinn Féin spokesman Martin Ferris said the House did not know what influence the Minister would be bringing to bear regarding animal welfare in the amending of the 1958 Act.

“This matter needs more clarity,” he added.

Kerry South FF TD John O’Donoghue claimed there had been an attempt in recent months “by self-styled pluralists to hijack this debate”.

It was instructive, he said, to recall that the father of Irish pluralism, Daniel O’Connell, was in love with hunting.

“O’Connell’s pluralism is far different to the type of pluralism that sometimes emanates from Donnybrook,” he said.

“We should distinguish between pluralists and tut-tutters; between pluralism and tut-tuttism.” He said Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, “a scion of Sinn Féin, Official Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin The Workers’ Party, the Workers’ Party, New Agenda, Democratic Left, which was involved in the reverse takeover of the Labour party”, had spoken out against blood sports.

He said Mr Gilmore reminded him of a gadfly around the tail of an old cow.

“He circles, one does not hear him, sometimes he might land but one does not see him land, but all the time one knows he is there and, in the final analysis, one will never quite know what he is up to, where he is going or how he will get there,” he added.