Animal Diseases
Seanad Éireann — 2021-11-09
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Malcolm Noonan (GP), Carlow-Kilkenny

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Seanadóirí. I thank both Senators for raising this really important issue. While the National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department licenses the hunting of deer and actively manages deer on its property, it does not own the deer population nor is it responsible for cordoning it into specific areas of land. Deer populations are mobile by their nature and have home ranges that are not constrained by land ownership boundaries.
These home ranges are normally defined by physical landscape features such as mountains, lakes, rivers, built-up areas and the availability of suitable habitat within that home range.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, is committed to the active management of the deer species within State-owned national parks and nature reserves, and as part of its regular ongoing management operations, the NPWS carries out regular surveys, censuses and reports on deer on our sites. Where appropriate, and depending on the annual counts, or where it is evident that damage is being caused by deer to habitats, particularly woodland, culls may need to be carried out to ensure that deer populations do not reach levels that would have negative ecological consequences. Such culls are undertaken by NPWS staff.
In summary, I have met with the Irish Deer Commission and other interested parties regarding this issue. I am very keen, as I know the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is, to see the establishment of a forum to deal with these issues. It is critically important that we understand and appreciate the scale of the challenges that we are facing regarding deer management from a biodiversity point of view, and the spread of disease.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2021-11-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-11-09