No the dog license for the UK was abolished years ago when I was young, think the last one was 37 1/2 p from what I remember.

Well Northern Ireland is part of the UK- it is distinct from Eire or the Republic of Ireland, I'm not sure if Southern Ireland has a licence?

We presently have a licensing system- so the news story is about the price increasing rather than anything else as well as new rules to enforce microchipping.

As it stands for the elderly there is half price (£2.50)- though under the new proposals that would still be £25 per dog.

Thanks for that got worried then that i'd missed something i'll relax now

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This was discussed on a local radio show this morning with more info:

BBC iPlayer - The Stephen Nolan Show: 08/10/2009

Just thought I'd update on this. There was a quite a significant outcry following the original story.

BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Ten-fold dog licence rise dropped

and as usual it will be the resposible owners who get cloppered
the others will just ignore it
and more dogs will get thrown out into the streets
people who have a few dogs will not be able to afford it
if it passes in ireland
it will come to the mainland soon
just the thing to kill off dog events like showing and agility etc

I agree.

It's one of those things that look good at first, but when you really examine it the thinking behind it is flawed - it's not going to dissuade the thugs/bad owners etc from buying the dogs - they just won't buy the license. Apparently they don't buy the £5.00 license as it is - so why do the powers that be in NI think they're going to pay £50.00? The only people it will hit are the ones who care for their dogs in the first place - and as you say, if they have several dogs it will hit them hard.

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Bergies and borders - what more could anyone want? Siamese and maine coons, of course!

From the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,
Moves on, nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
(But you can always edit your post, of course )

Yes this is the case. I think throughout this discussion it was said that in the Craigavon Council area it was estimated that under 1/3 of all the dogs within that district were actually licensed. And that was when it was £5!

I would pay 100 times the current licence, happily, if I thought for a minute that it would help solve the dog straying problem we have here- but it won't. No licence is worth anything more than an ID tag if it isn't enforced. Whatsmore the revenue generated, in so far as I know, does not go directly towards the dog problem we have here- rather it lines the pockets of our MLA's.

Anyway, the revisions that have been made do actually sound reasonable in comparison to the original, if they are going to insist on maintaining licensing in Northern Ireland, ie: you don't need to pay if your dog is neutered. Still if no one actually monitors or enforces it, why would you bother? The scheme is not working, plain and simple. We have licences AND the worst strays problem in the whole of the UK.

I hope they don't introduce it, thats money better spent on their toys and food as far as I can see.

Yobs that don't give a toss about their dogs aren't going to buy a license, it's just another tax