Countryside Alliance Ireland - love the countryside

Countryside Alliance Ireland welcomes the decision by the Northern Ireland Assembly not to give full protection to the Irish hare.  An amendment tabled by the Alliance Party to give full statutory protection to the Irish hare was opposed during the further consideration stage of the Wildlife and Natural Environment Bill at Stormont on Monday 7 February 2011. 19 MLAs voted for the amendment and 56 against.

This amendment was not tabled in the best interests of the Irish hare population; it merely sought to end the traditional activities of beagling and hunting with hounds in Northern Ireland.

The Minister for the Environment, Edwin Poots MLA, reiterated his reasons for not supporting this amendment stating that ecological evidence indicates that the main factors limiting the Irish hare population are the availability and quality of suitable habitat.  Activities such as hunting have a negligible impact on the overall population.

Mr Francie Molloy MLA said during the debate that as anyone who lives in a rural area will know, the hunting of hares by hounds has been going on for centuries; it is a country pastime as much as anything.

An amendment tabled by Mr Molloy to allow two licensed coursing events in Northern Ireland per year fell by 33 to 53 votes.  The Minister for the Environment stated he maintained that hare coursing was not primarily a conservation-related issue.  It was his belief that the decision taken by the Assembly at Consideration Stage to ban hare coursing was taken on social and ethical grounds and based on the premise that such a sport is no longer appropriate in the twenty-first century. He further stated that those amendments would be a fundamental reversal of the Assembly’s decision to ban hare coursing altogether.

A special thanks to all our members, MLAs and supporters for the concerted effort during our lobbying campaign