Further legislation on dog control is expected within the lifetime of the current Government, a Fine Gael TD has said, adding that the XL Bully ban was "just a starting point in terms of addressing issues around animal control".

Since February 2025, it has been illegal to own an XL Bully type dog without a Certificate of Exemption. Although there are ten restricted dogs breeds, the XL Bully is the only dog type that requires a Certificate of Exemption.

In order to get a certificate of exemption, the dog owner must provide proof that they owned their XL Bully before October 2024 and have the dog licensed, microchipped, and neutered.

Non-compliance with the law can result in a fine and even imprisonment for the dog owner, and the dog will be euthanised.

Between October 2024 and last December, a total of 1,920 applications for a certificate of exemption for an XL Bully dog were made, according to figures provided to RTÉ's This Week by the Department of Agriculture.

There have been 1,456 certificates of exemption issued.

Ninety-eight XL Bully Type dogs were surrendered to a local authority, and 123 were euthanised by the dog's own veterinary surgeon.

For other dogs which were too young to be neutered, a grace period was introduced to allow those dogs to come to maturity before being neutered and then granted their certificate of exemption.

Fine Gael TD Maeve O'Connell has said that the position the country is in now with XL Bullies is "better for society" but she added the Government needed to look at the areas of breeding and importation.

"The ban does not address the issue of irresponsible dog ownership and the root cause of incidents of aggression"

Hannah Unger, solicitor with Dog Law Ireland, said the ban has had a "really negative impact on all bully type dogs".

"We think there would have been more effective ways to enhance public safety," Ms Unger said, adding that dog attacks still occur although the XL Bully ban is in place.

"The ban does not address the issue of irresponsible dog ownership and the root cause of incidents of aggression."

Ms Unger listed alternatives to breed-specific legislation. "Establishing an independent regulator, imposing serious penalties on owners for dog attacks, especially when there's a history of aggression, educating the public, mandatory dog theory tests in order to get a dog licence, serious reforms for dog breeding legislation, mandatory annual veterinary check-ups, regulation of the dog training industry."

A public consultation on the Department of Agriculture's Animal Welfare Strategy ended in January.

"That's going to be fed into the dog welfare group and out of that, we're going to be looking at introducing new legislation," Ms O'Connell said.

As well as introducing the XL Bully Ban, the funding to local authorities for dog wardens was increased by €2 million.

"For me at the heart of all of this is the families who suffered as a result of the attacks by those dogs," Ms O'Connell said.

She added: "They will have to live with that throughout the rest of our lives.

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"This is not a dog that is suitable as a family dog and yet it was part of families. We cannot allow that to continue.

"The public consultation on animal welfare, which will feed into the dog stakeholder group, and which will ultimately result in changes to the legislation around breeding and trading of dogs, is really, really important."

She said: "I'm urging Minister Hayden to prioritise it."

XL Bullies are a variant of the American Bully dog breed. In Irish law, they are defined as a powerfully built, large dog with a square, muscular body and blocky head.

If the height to just-above-the-shoulders is greater than 48cm on a female and 51cm on a male, then it is an XL bully and must have a certificate of exemption.

Kerry Ryan lives in Carlingford, Co Louth with her husband, adult children and five dogs. All her dogs are rescues and four of them are bully breeds.

She adopted her XL Bully, named 'Hugh Jackman', from My Lovely Horse Rescue just before it became illegal to do so.

"He came with the name, we didn't name him that," she laughed.

"It was kind of an emergency imperative that he gets in a home before that was no longer possible by law," Ms Ryan said.

Hugh Jackman is less than two years old, weighs 45kg, has osteoarthritis and is on pain medications.

"His medical problems are from poor breeding," Ms Ryan said.

"He was just irresponsibly bred."

Hugh Jackman has dysplasia is his hips, elbows and shoulders. Because of his large size, he may not be eligible for surgery.

Ms Ryan said she doesn't think it's a good or bad thing that the breed will die out in Ireland. However, she feels the ban on the XL Bully has made people scared of dogs like Hugh Jackman.

"A lot of the locals know him and know that he's super friendly," Ms Ryan said.

"I think it's a bit intimidating for people when they see not so much the size of him, but a dog with a muzzle on … so that looks even more intimidating.

"He just wants to say hello to people and people are very scared of him."

When walking her dog, Ms Ryan says sometimes people cross the street when they see him.

Ms Ryan would prefer a law that limited people's ability to breed dogs like XLs that are bred to an extreme that makes them uncomfortable.

"Dachshunds have an extremely long spine and have medical issues because of that," she said.

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Images Courtesy of Getty Images.

Kerry Ryan adopted her XL Bully, named \u0027Hugh Jackman\u0027, from My Lovely Horse Rescue just before it became illegal to do so

\u003Cp\u003EXL Bullies are a variant of the American Bully dog breed\u003C/p\u003E

\u003Cp\u003EKerry Ryan said she doesn\u0027t think it\u0027s a good or bad thing that the breed will die out in Ireland\u003C/p\u003E