The thing about getting things done in politics and bringing about change is that “you do have to bring people with you” first.The Taoiseach, with his decades of experience in and out of Government, knows it better than most. He was endeavouring to explain this to Paul Murphy during Leaders’ Questions in advance of Wednesday night’s vote on a proposal to ban live hare coursing.The Solidarity-People Before Profit TD, who tabled the motion along with his colleague Ruth Coppinger, was still hoping that Micheál Martin might allow Fianna Fáil TDs a free vote on the question as a number of them had indicated they favour a ban.Not much hope of that happening. The rule in the Government parties, Micheál pointed out, is that votes of conscience are only allowed “in respect of human life issues”. Animal life issues are a different kettle of blood sport.During the final debate last Thursday, Minister of State Niall Collins stressed that the Government would not be supporting the Bill.“While it [coursing] is a minority pursuit, it doesn’t mean it cannot continue. Under this Government, it will continue,” he said in no uncertain terms.A week on, and with the vote looming, his party leader drew on his reservoir of knowledge to recall earlier times in the Dáil “when other practices were legislated for and the campaigns that developed around them were far in excess of the specific issue. In other words, people felt that their entire way of life was going to be challenged”.So that’s why it is important to bring the people along with you before jumping into a big vote like that. Deputy Murphy was puzzled. (It wouldn’t be the first time in his exchange with the Taoiseach at Leaders’ Questions.)“I mean, the Taoiseach said you have to bring people with you, but, but …” He couldn’t understand it. “People are miles ahead of the politicians on this one.” He said opinion poll figures showed a significant majority in favour of a ban, including one which had just been published. They also indicated no urban-rural divide. So the problem, he put to the Taoiseach, was not with him having to get the people around to his side.“The problem that the people often face is that they have to try [to] drag the politicians with them. Because this place remains an outlier compared to society at large.” It’s been a long road, said the TD for Dublin South-West before this latest Dáil attempt to ban the activity. The late Tony Gregory tried with his Private Members’ Bill more than 30 years ago and then independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan introduced a Bill in 2015. “Now, here we are again, 10 years later in 2026 as one of only three European countries that still allow this annual torture of the hare to continue.”He put a few straight questions to the Fianna Fáil leader. The sunny weather always makes people feel overly optimistic. “What’s your position, Taoiseach. Are you personally in favour of hare coursing?“Do you think it’s okay to torture wild animals for fun or for gambling?“Are you going to let your TDs vote with their conscience, or is it a case of Fianna Fáil running with the hares and hunting with the hounds, saying one thing to one audience and then doing another?”Answers came there none. But Micheál could quote chapter and verse about the Wildlife Act and the Animal Health and Wildlife Act and all the conditions attached to granting licences allowing for the terrorising of hares by muzzled greyhounds under “tightly regulated” conditions and so on and so forth in terms of keeping the situation under constant review in accordance with the regulatory framework. Paul Murphy said that, despite what one Fine Gael TD tried to suggest during last week’s debate, hares don’t actually enjoy the chase. “They’re not running for the laugh, they’re running because they’re utterly terrified by dogs that are 10 times their size.”While the socialist TD was trying to work out how bringing people onside to support your Bill is the biggest problem when the overwhelming majority already favour its introduction, he was simultaneously wrestling with another conundrum.Maybe Micheál could solve this one for him.Back to last week’s debate and Niall Collins using a strong economic argument to bolster the Government’s determination to let hare coursing continue. This was “troubling”, perplexed Paul said.The Minister of State for Agriculture was throwing around figures from an independent report apparently published in 2022. But Deputy Murphy has never set eyes on it, despite trying to track down a copy. He wonders if it even exists. “In 2022, an independent economic analysis estimated that coursing contributed approximately €70.7 million annually to the Irish economy, the vast majority of which directly benefited rural communities, with €37.9 million attributable to the life cycle of the coursing greyhound itself” is what Niall told the Dáil. “It is very, very troubling that, in the debate, the Government relied on a figure from a report that hasn’t been produced, that cannot be analysed and that cannot be scrutinised,” Paul remarked in the same place a week later.It’s a figure he says makes no sense, but it’s what people are being told and what several Fianna Fáil TDs have been repeating across the airwaves.“But this is a very elusive report. Shyer than the hare itself.” Strange how the “unbelievable finding” that hare coursing is worth more than €70 million a year has surfaced after four years in the wilderness when the latest Bill to ban coursing is up before the Dáil, with some Government politicians now shouting from the rooftops about it. Murphy was back with more straight questions for Micheál, for all the good it would do him.“It’s all a bit mysterious, Taoiseach, wouldn’t you agree?“Have you seen this report? “Do you agree that this report, if it exists at all, needs to be published?”The Taoiseach didn’t give any answers the first time around. He was pressed again and responded at the second time of asking.“I haven’t seen the report,” Micheál said, stuttering over his reply. “And I, to be frank with you, eh, having been assessed, I, I don’t, the provenance of the report is not something that I have knowledge of, in terms, but I … It’s not surprising that people would have done studies on this and would have done analysis.” Not that it matters that much anyway. “But it’s more than just economics in any event.” The Taoiseach repeated that not supporting the ban was more to do with “bringing people” along with you. It’s about people thinking their “perspectives are under sustained attack and threat now and whether that’s justified or not, that’s the reality”.Introducing measures such as those proposed by deputy Murphy can create a “counter action” that can be “far disproportionate to the actual issues that have been raised here from time to time … and that ultimately has manifestations than are much broader than the specific issue of hare coursing itself.”That’s clear.Meanwhile, less than an hour earlier, over in the Seanad, Fine Gael Senator Mike Kennelly from Kerry made a long speech “in support of the greyhound industry and the regulated practice of hare coursing”. Reading carefully from a script, it included the line: “Hare coursing is estimated to generate economic activity in excess of over €70 million, benefiting local businesses, hotels, restaurants, shops and service providers throughout rural Ireland”. Mike must have seen this elusive report, too. Maybe he might drop a copy over to the Taoiseach, seeing as his own man Niall Collins, who quoted it on behalf of the Government last week, never got around to doing it.