IT IS not often that a Fianna Fáil minister deserves to be praised for decisive action on an issue, but Environment Minister Martin Cullen deserves a pat on the back for refusing to give the shooting fraternity the right to hunt over national parks and nature reserves.

WITH the inevitable ban on live hunting with hounds in the UK, the baton of social reform will then be handed to Ireland to join its more forward-thinking neighbours and remove hunt-controlled violence from the Irish countryside.