People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has appealed to TDs to put pressure on their political parties to allow for a free vote on legislation to ban hare coursing. The Animal Health and Welfare (Ban on Hare Coursing) Bill 2020, which proposes banning hare coursing on the grounds of animal health and welfare, was debated at second stage in the Dáil on Thursday. A vote will take place on Wednesday for the legislation to further proceed. The Government said they were opposing the Bill. Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny also said his party would not be supporting the proposed legislation. The Coalition-backing Independent TD Barry Heneghan said he agreed with Murphy on the issue and that he supported his Bill, indicating he would vote against the Government next week. It is the third time such a Bill has been brought before the chamber; following efforts by Tony Gregory in 1993 and Maureen O’Sullivan in 2015.Ireland is one of only three European countries in 2026 that “still allows this annual torture of the hare to continue”, said Murphy. In the last 15 years, more than 65,000 Irish hares have been captured from the wild and “forced to participate in barbarism, all because a relatively small number of people enjoy watching animals being absolutely terrorised, and some who want to make money from gambling on this torture,” he said. The Irish hare is a unique sub species of mountain hare, Murphy said, found only on the island of Ireland. “We don’t have many unique animals, but the hare is one of them. Its cultural status was cemented for many decades in the old Irish three pence coins. It is iconic across Irish folklore, where hares were often seen as spirits of the dead, leading to a taboo against eating them. “We could do with renewing and broadening that ancient taboo by banning hare coursing too.”The Dublin Southwest TD appealed to the public to contact their local representatives and other Opposition and Government TDs to “put pressure on their parties to fight for a free vote and to vote in any case with their conscience, not to vote to allow this cruel practice to continue”. In particular, Murphy said Sinn Féin needed to stand up and “make the right decision”. “It is already banned in the North. There should be no more partitionism on this,” he added. Minister of State Niall Collins said there would not be a free vote on the Bill and the Government was “absolutely” continuing to support hare coursing. He said coursing licenses carry 44 separate conditions overseen by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which also oversees coursing meetings to ensure compliance. Collins said a panel of experts inspect every club in advance of a meeting and issue a certificate to course only where standards are met, with hares examined by a veterinary surgeon before, during, and after every meeting with a monitoring committee also in place. The current hare casualty rate at coursing meetings is below one per cent, down from almost 16 per cent before the introduction of muzzling in 1993, he said. Collins also said an independent economic analysis estimated that coursing contributes around €70.7 million annually to the Irish economy, “the great majority of which directly benefits rural communities” with the sector not receiving State funding. “It is entirely self-resourced through club fundraising, membership, and voluntary effort. Coursing provides a strong social function for rural communities, particularly for older members during winter months. A ban would remove this voluntary activity and community infrastructure without replacing it,” he added. Kenny said Sinn Féin recognised there were “always issues” when it came to “sports of this nature” but that it was highly regulated. The Sligo-Leitrim TD also said banning hare coursing may lead to it going “underground” where it would not be regulated.