I propose that the petitions considered by the committee at this meeting and previous meetings will be published, along with the replies from Departments and other bodies. Is that agreed? Agreed.

The first petition, No. P00003/25, is entitled "Changes to citizenship legislation". There has been an extensive exchange of correspondence. Based on the most recent response received from the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, I propose we close this petition and advise the petitioner that the petition cannot be progressed any further by this committee. Is that agreed? Agreed.

No. P00014/25, entitled "Reform Irish Laws on Pet Theft 2025", was submitted by Ms Lisa O'Connor. This submission was made previously and continued over. There is a fairly extensive list of correspondence. We have correspondence back from the Departments of agriculture and justice. I am mindful that in this case there is a public petition, separate to this petitions committee, that has more than 10,000 signatures. This is clearly an issue that has exercised people. We will, of course, with the agreement of the committee, forward the correspondence from the Departments of agriculture and justice to the petitioner for comment within 14 days. Do members have any other suggestions as to what we might do or anything else they would like to say? I see Senator Andrews is indicating.

I feel that the response from the Department of justice is very weak, and it would be helpful if the committee were to invite in Department officials or the Minister, along with the Minister for agriculture. Dog and pet theft is an issue for a lot of people and I do not think we should be treating our pets, our companions, like inanimate objects. They are sentient beings and should be treated as such. There should be an elevation in the law as to how they are treated. If a case of pet theft comes before a judge, the judge will sentence as if for the theft of an inanimate object. We need to ensure pets’ position is elevated in law. The judge will then reflect that in sentencing. That would be positive.

The Department of justice’s response is lamentable, and I would like to have representatives in before us.

That is a very good suggestion. We were all struck the day we heard from the petitioners. It was very emotional, and there is very obviously a depth of feeling about this. There are also 10,000 people’s names on a petition, which we should not ignore. That is a good suggestion. We will run with that and try to get in both Departments and see if we can get something more. We can get them to flesh out what they have given us. We will also publish the response from the Department of justice and forward it to the petitioner for comment within 14 days. Is that agreed? Agreed.

No. P00041/25 is entitled "Fair Citizenship: 3 Years for Ukrainians Under Temporary Protection in Ireland". The proposal is that we will publish the response from the Department of justice and that correspondence will be sent to the petitioner for comment within 14 days. Is that agreed? Agreed.

No. P00042/25 is "Lack of Separation of Powers in High Court Administration and other matters". There has been some exchange of correspondence. The proposal is that we will publish the response from the Department of justice and that correspondence will be forwarded to the petitioner for comment. Is that agreed? Agreed.

That concludes our consideration of public petitions. I invite members of the public to submit petitions via our online portal, which is available at petitions.oireachtas.ie. A petition may be addressed to the Houses of the Oireachtas on a matter of general public concern or interest or an issue of public policy. Do members have any other issues they would like to raise?

The secretariat does massive amounts of work behind all of this every time.

We are blessed with the best secretariat in the business. The committee is adjourned until Tuesday, 28 April, at 11 a.m., when we will meet in private and public session.