A BILL TO ban fox hunting has been defeated in the Dáil.

The Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2025, spearheaded by Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger, would have prohibited the use of canines to hunt or flush out foxes and prohibit trapping or snaring of the foxes in order to kill them. 

It would not have outlawed the shooting of foxes on one’s land for the purpose of protecting livestock.

Some 124 TDs voted against the ban, while 24 voted in favour.

According to a recent opinion poll, a majority of people believe foxhunting should be banned as a sport in Ireland. The survey did not query respondents on the hunting of foxes on non-sporting grounds, such as for the protection of farm livestock.

FF,FG, SF, Ind Irel and Aontu vote to keep fox hunting despite 85% opposing blood sports. Not the first time Dáil has been poles apart from population.
We will fight on to #BanFoxHunting https://t.co/DKw3DwqI5S

— Ruth Coppinger (@RuthCoppingerSP) December 17, 2025

Coppinger said the result shows that certain political parties are out of step with the public, and that some TDs were “wilfully misinterpreting” the Bill.

Yesterday, during a debate on the ban, Michael Healy-Rae called the Bill a “con job”, and said rounded on members of the opposition, who he said were “misleading” the public. 

Healy-Rae, who is among many rural politicans who opposed the ban, argued that fox hunting is part of the “management of rural Ireland”, and that farmers would incur financial losses if it’s outlawed.

Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore said the debate was not about “rural versus urban” interests, but rather animal welfare. She read out letters from people living in rural Ireland who support the ban.

In response, Healy-Rae argued said nearly 30% of people in his constituency voted for him in the last election, indicating that they would support his views.

“Maybe she’d stick that in her pipe and smoke it,” he said about Whitmore.

“You can’t go against the electorate. They’re the bosses.”

Coppinger later described his comments as “dripping misogyny”.

Healy-Rae then moved on to Eoin Hayes, another Social Democrats TD, saying: “When I’m on a roll, I’ll take them out one by one.”

Earlier in the debate, Hayes had argued that fox hunting was an “imported tradition” and “a throwback to empire”. He said people who partake in it are “cosplaying as British aristocrats”.

He also said it is “galling” that three parties whose foundations are anti-colonial (Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin) would support “one of the last cultural vestiges” of the British Empire in Ireland. 

According to Healy-Rae, Hayes was “talking absolute rubbish” because he “didn’t understand” the Bill properly.