€320,000 spent on grooming Revenue dogs — but they sniffed out €24m in contraband

Revenue said the canine programme was a key part of the fight against shadow economy activity targeting fraud, illicit trade, smuggling, and organised crime.

The Revenue Commissioners forked out more than €320,000 last year keeping their kennel of sniffer dogs fed, watered, groomed, and in tip-top condition.

But the investment was repaid dozens of times over with the dogs helping in seizures of tobacco, drugs, and cash totalling more than €24m in 2020.

The Revenue paid the appropriately named Wagtail Ltd €82,162 last year to cover the cost of purchasing trained, scented Detector Dogs as well as ongoing dog handler courses.

They said this payment also included some costs related to a training course that was provided in 2019.

Details released under FOI reveal another €17,780 in spending on food to keep the detector dogs in the best of health.

The illegal drugs were discovered, with the assistance of detector dog Bailey.

Another €40,775 was spent on boarding kennels, with €33,227 paid out for veterinary services.

Miscellaneous costs for other dog-related bills came to €12,530 while payments for “independent assessments” came to €2,704.

Revenue also purchased dog vans for transporting their specialist detector hounds at a cost of €130,850, according to the records they released.

There are currently 23  dogs in use by the Revenue, each with their own specialities in terms of what contraband they can sniff out.

The dogs typically begin their working life aged around 18 months with their careers in detection normally spanning between six and eight years.

Depending on their breed, the scent ability of a detector dog is between 1,000 and 10,000 times at strong as a human.

Some dogs like Bill the Springer are suited to multi-scent training and can pick up the whiff of cash, tobacco, cigarettes, and cannabis.

Others like Jack the Labrador are more specialised and can sniff out cash and drugs, a spokeswoman for the Revenue said.

She added: “When our dogs retire, they usually remain in the care of their handler. For operational and security reasons, we do not publish the age or location of our detector dogs, regardless of whether they are active or in retirement.” 

Revenue said the canine programme was a key part of the fight against shadow economy activity targeting fraud, illicit trade, smuggling and organised crime.

The dogs are put to work anywhere they are needed, routinely operating at ports, airports, mail centres, and at freight forwarding premises.

The Revenue spokeswoman said training for dogs and handlers was provided by the UK company Wagtail by highly qualified trainers.

She said: “Dog handlers are taught all aspects of animal welfare, including canine first aid and grooming techniques, as well as more specialist subjects depending on their dog’s personal abilities.” 

Detector dog Bill is suited to multi-scent training and can pick up the whiff of cash, tobacco, cigarettes, and cannabis.

All the dogs are trained to use what is known as a ‘passive response’ when they find something so that they ‘sit and stare’ when in the presence of something suspicious.

Each of the sniffer dogs has different abilities and their capacity for continuous searching varies. Their ability to sniff out items can also depend on climate or the particular environment they are working in.

They can efficiently and thoroughly search an average warehouse in around 30 minutes; a task that might take four to five officers up to two hours.

Revenue said that while advances in areas such as data analytics, intelligence, and profiling were being used to tackle smuggling… no electronic or technological solution as effective as sniffer dogs was likely to become available any time soon.