A nationwide ban on all wild animals being used in circuses.

Besides being forced to perform unnatural tricks – which cause stress and injury – for the purpose of human entertainment, animals suffer from being constantly transported in small cages and living in tight and uncomfortable enclosures. 
Have you ever stopped to consider the life of a circus animal: chained, caged, forced to live in cramped and totally unsuitable housing, and hauled from town to town in a “beast wagon”? Regardless of the number of generations that wild animals have been in captivity, captive-born wild animals do not lose the instincts and needs of wild animals. They retain their natural instincts to socialise and to roam freely. Circuses deny captive-born wild animals of their need to exhibit their natural behaviors.

 "Who wants to see a miserable, confused (and potentially dangerous) wild animal trot out a tired routine that they’ve been forced to learn through beatings and other abuse."

It is a disgrace to Irish society that such practices are allowed to go on in the name of entertainment. It renders us hypocritical as a society that purports to be conscientious and peaceful. Animals are not on this planet for human entertainment.

Here’s the list of countries that have implemented bans on circuses that use wild animals:

Austria
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Colombia
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cyprus
El Salvador
Greece
Israel
Malta
Mexico
The Netherlands
Paraguay
Peru
Singapore
Slovenia

Animals in a circus do not care in which country they were born, trained or perform. Surely they all need to be protected from the suffering a lifetime in a circus can cause.