The President of The Irish Kennel Club was invited to chair a meeting convened by The Irish Red and White Setter Club of Ireland and attended by breed representatives from several FCI member countries to address the problems that had arisen from judges’ interpretations of aspects of the standard and the resulting consequences. In his report Sean Delmar said:-

‘It’s only when there is a crisis that you realise how many friends you have and judging by the submissions I received from Clubs and individuals the Red and White Setter breed has many friends who care. On Saturday 18th September in the offices of the IKC I chaired a meeting.

‘The problems were identified as follows:

‘(A) The term ‘Disqualified’ was resulting in dogs’ registrations being withdrawn in several countries.

‘(B) The degree of ‘ticking’ and ‘mottling’ was not adequately described. After a very full discussion in which all present took part, a proposal from the breed club to amend the standard was considered. It was felt by all that this proposal would remove the problems as identified and after some minor adjustments the breed club delegation agreed to take it back to an EGM of the club for ratification.

‘As you can appreciate breed standards should only be changed with proper deliberation and protocol, so this is the sequence of events. EGM of The Irish Red and White Setter Club (decision to recommend it to IKC) General Purposes Committee (IKC) recommendation to An Ard Comhairle. An Ard Comhairle considers and accepts or rejects the recommendation. All going well this should be cleared in early December.

‘Finally, my sincere thanks to The Irish Red and White Setter Club, to the FCI countries representatives from Belgium, Germany, Italy and Finland and to all those who cared enough to make representations on this matter’

PROPOSAL Colour: Base colour white with solid red patches (clear islands of red colour), both colours should show the maximum of life and bloom, flecking but not roaning permitted around the face and feet and up the foreleg as far as the elbow and up the hindleg as far as the hock. Visible and excessive roaning, flecking and mottling on any other part of the body is most objectionable and prohibits the dog from being graded higher than Very Good.