Westmeath County Councillors have called for the council to provide help for its dog
warden service in order for it to be able to cope with upcoming laws for dogs deemed
dangerous.
Cllr Vinny McCormack and Cllr Tom Farrell both questioned the council’s Chief Executive,
Barry Kehoe, on the addition of new dog wardens at the Council’s monthly meeting on
Monday, 22 July.
Fine Gael’s Cllr Farrell also asked for more dog warden services to be applied for The Old
Rail Trail Greenway from Mullingar to Athlone because of unruly dog instances.
Laws announced on Friday, 12 July state that from 1 October, 2024, new regulations will
prohibit the importing, breeding, selling and re-homing of XL Bullies and from 1 February,
2025, it will be illegal to own an XL Bully without a ‘Certificate of Excellence.’
A Topic Freedom of Information request in March, 2024, found that Westmeath County
Council issued zero fines under dangerous dog regulations since 2020, despite reported
dog attacks increasing nationwide. Westmeath was one of the few council nationally to fail
to issue fines under dangerous dog legislation and the new laws would likely increase the
workload.
UNDER PRESSURE
Cllr McCormack, speaking at the Westmeath County Council meeting on Monday, 22 July,
said: “There is going to be pressure on dog warden services which, to be fair, are really
under a lot of pressure as it stands within the county.
“We don’t have enough resources to deal with what we have at the moment. The dog
warden is going to have a lot more to deal with when this (law) comes into affect.
“I think we urgently need to look at additional resources when it comes to dog warden
services because I know of cases that are not being responded to in a timely manner as it
stands and I worry what that is going to be like going forward without additional resources.
The council’s Chief Executive, Barry Kehoe, replied that he was conscious of the new dog
laws.
“We do anticipate that this will involve a lot of additional work for our dog warden services
in its wider form, not only in the administration of it but in dealing with that particular
breed as well,” said Mr Kehoe.
He continued: “We are working with sector level in the Department to identify the work, the quantity of it and how we will undertake that which we will have to come back to at the end of the year when we have a bit more information.
“In the meantime, we are seeking to fill the dog warden that is vacant at the moment.
Temporarily in the short term, it is being addressed by the community wardens but in the
medium term, we will fill it as quickly as we can.”
Cllr Farrell expressed his concern that more than one dog warden was not being
considered, and ask Mr Kehoe if this was correct.
Mr Kehoe responded that only one dog warden position was vacant at the moment and he
was not aware of any provision for two dog wardens.
GREENWAY DOG ISSUES
Regarding the Old Rail Trail Greenway, Cllr Farrell commented: “By-laws concerning dogs
in the greenway have to be upgraded. There is definitely danger out there at the moment.”
“For anyone who goes on the greenway from Mullingar or Athlone, there are dogs there that should not be there.”
“I think it is important that we should keep our by-laws up to date.”
In response, Mr Kehoe answered: “If there is an issue with dogs on the greenways, then
certainly report them and we do have the community wardens to get out there and do
whatever to prevent that.”
