I will speak today on behalf of the Labour Party to express our strong support for the Animal Health and Welfare (Ban on Fox Hunting) Bill 2025. I want to thank our colleagues for proposing it.

This legislation is not about point-scoring, nor is it about rural Ireland versus urban Ireland. To say it is actually diminishes the points that some who oppose this legislation are seeking to make. It is fundamentally about decency, ethics and whether we are prepared to legislate in line with what we say are stated public values and with modern animal welfare standards. It is first and foremost a moral question.

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. It has, in our view, no place whatsoever in a modern republic that claims to value compassion, evidence-based policymaking and respect for animal welfare. There is nothing republican about fox hunting. Conservatism again trumps republicanism.

In recent weeks, my office, along with others, has received hundreds of emails calling for an end to fox hunting. Many of these messages come from constituents who have witnessed hunts at first hand. Their accounts strip away the romanticised language often used to defend this indefensible activity. They describe exhausted animals pursued for hours, terrified livestock, damaged land and an organised spectacle of violence presented – or misrepresented – as tradition. This is not wildlife management; it is cruelty. I see that “rural pursuits” now seems to be a catch-all phrase to justify anything at all that happens in rural Ireland. Again, that does rural Ireland and the people I represent in rural Ireland an absolute disservice. They are not a monolithic, homogenous group.

The public mood on this issue is clear, as was said earlier. A recent national opinion poll conducted by Ireland Thinks found that 72% of the Irish public support a ban on fox hunting. Importantly, this opposition is strong in rural Ireland itself. This is not, as I said, a rural-urban divide. I am proud to represent parts of rural County Louth and have done so for over two decades now.

Yet that consensus is not reflected in the political debate. We continue to hear claims, often repeated without any evidence whatsoever, that fox hunting is vital for farmers or essential to rural life. If fox control is required, farmers already have lawful, proportionate and humane means to address it. Organised fox hunting with packs of hounds is not, as was said earlier, an effective or humane method of wildlife management. It is the definition, in fact, of inefficiency. A chaotic chase involving dozens of dogs and riders pursuing a single animal cannot credibly be described as pest control. It is neither targeted nor evidence based and it results in extreme suffering.

The claim that fox hunting is central to farming or rural culture is also contradicted by the evidence. In fact, only around 2% of the population has ever participated in a fox hunt. As a sportsperson, I am not inclined to sanitise this pursuit by calling it a sport. Some 98% of people have no connection to it whatsoever – never have, never will – and the numbers will diminish. A practice engaged in by such a small minority cannot reasonably be described as essential to rural life. Farmers themselves have not demanded this practice be preserved. Many I know have raised serious concerns about hunts trespassing on land, damaging crops, frightening livestock and undermining biodiversity. This is not a harmonious rural tradition; it is an imposition that many rural communities actively oppose.

There is a class context to this too. Let us not forget that or pretend otherwise. There has always been something of the upstairs-downstairs about this and a nonsense we used to see in the stage Irishman depiction of fox hunting in the likes of “The Irish R.M.” and so on. It is absolute nonsense and far from republican. The historical context of fox hunting in Ireland cannot be ignored. The Irish Masters of Foxhounds Association was established in 1845, during the Great Famine, and the practice itself is deeply rooted in colonial power structures. This is not a neutral or ancient Irish tradition; it is an imported phenomenon and a colonial blood sport imported and maintained by privilege.

From an animal welfare perspective, the harms associated with fox hunting are simply unavoidable. Foxes endure prolonged pursuit, intense fear and physiological stress before often being violently killed. This suffering is intentional and intrinsic to the activity. I am no agricultural expert and do not claim to be but I know gratuitous cruelty when I see it. Horses used in hunts are also placed under extreme physical and psychological strain. They are pushed to gallop long distances over uneven ground, jump obstacles at speed and suppress natural fear responses in chaotic environments. This exposes them to a high risk of injury, exhaustion, chronic stress and fatal accidents. Hounds are also subjected to welfare risks. They are bred, trained and worked in ways that prioritise performance over well-being, often resulting in injury, exhaustion and premature death. Their natural behaviours are exploited and they are placed in dangerous situations over which they have no control.

I have received messages from people I know and respect in recent days asking me to think of the hounds and what they do naturally and I have one message for people listening in. If these kinds of so-called rural pursuits are ended, they will evolve and they will change. That is an intrinsic part of nature, of who we are as human beings and what mammals do.

Supporters of fox hunting often argue that banning the practice would mean horses and hounds would no longer exist. This is a false dilemma, a false dichotomy. Ending a harmful practice does not require the destruction of the animals involved or make them obsolete in any way. Nature evolves, and their value and the value of each animal endures beyond their limited, in this context, economic function to some. This applies to dogs too.

The claims that fox hunting builds confidence in horses or resilience in humans are also not supported by behavioural science. High-stress environments actually inhibit learning. What is often labelled as bravery is more accurately explained by learned helplessness, a state associated with welfare risks and increased injury. While time in nature, physical activity and social connection are absolutely beneficial to mental health, none of these outcomes depend on the pursuit and the killing of wildlife. Ethical community-building and well-being must not be achieved through harm to sentient beings that cannot consent.

Fox hunting is frequently defended as essential to rural community life, yet participation requires significant financial and social capital, placing it beyond the reach of most people, certainly the people I represent. Presenting it as representative of rural Ireland obscures issues of exclusion and inequality and actually does the argument on the opposite side a disservice. Rural social cohesion is a legitimate policy goal, one I pursue in my everyday work, but it must be addressed through inclusive public infrastructure and services and opportunities, not through exclusive, harmful traditions.

This is not the 1800s; this is supposed to be a modern, sophisticated Republic. I speak for rural Ireland – a new, changing rural Ireland – as much as others do. As I said earlier, modern rural Ireland is not a monolith. The people there are not homogenous. It is a complex community with competing and different interests and, frankly, a lot of those in here who claim to have a monopoly on speaking for those in rural Ireland do rural Ireland a disservice and do not ever reflect the diversity in modern rural Ireland that we have today and the diversity of views.

This animal health and welfare Bill reflects growing recognition that hunting wild mammals with dogs is incompatible with modern welfare standards. Comparable jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, have already enacted bans, as we know, even though the argument could very well be made that this is some part of a tradition in the UK, albeit an aristocratic, landed gentry one, that goes back centuries. Ireland would not be acting in isolation, therefore, but in line with its stated commitments to animal welfare and EU principles recognising animals as sentient beings.

I urge my colleagues to support this Bill. This is one of those occasions when the introduction of a free vote should be considered. Not to support the Bill would be to continue defending a cruel, unnecessary and, in our view, outdated practice that the Irish public has clearly rejected and will continue to reject. Fox hunting is not about farmers. It is not about rural life. It is, in our view, about cruelty and it is a pursuit that should be consigned to the bin of history and put out of its misery.