Senator who loses whip condemns ‘anti-rural’ Greens

THE Green Party is “pushing the Government to the brink of an election” through an agenda that is anti-rural Ireland, according to a Fianna Fáil senator who was expelled from the parliamentary party yesterday.

Cork senator Denis O’Donovan lost the party whip because he abstained from a Seanad vote on the Dog Breeding Establishments Bill, which proposes to regulate puppy farms and kennels for hunting hounds and racing greyhounds.

The bill, published last month by Green Party leader and Environment Minister John Gormley, is to be voted on in the Dáil before the summer recess in July.