Senators this week highlighted the “ongoing challenge” facing areas such as in Co. Wicklow where there is an “overrun of deer”.

Senator Pat Casey said that “the figures speak for themselves”, as “there is TB in one in every six herds in Wicklow”.

“Some 4% of herds nationally have TB and have had restrictions placed on them whereas this figure is 18% in Wicklow, four times the national average,” the senator said.

“Some 5.4% of the cattle herd in Wicklow are reactors. The figure nationally is only 1.8%. This is an ongoing issue. Some 16% of the deer population carry TB.”

He added that “we all know that the number of deer in Wicklow continues to increase”, and they are seen “grazing farmers’ fields every day”.

“Coming from one of the most scenic areas of Wicklow, where I have the pleasure of walking the mountains, it is quite frightening how close we, as humans, can come to the deer population,” the senator said.

“The deer will not move even if people come within 1m or 2m. In my own valley of Glendalough, we are now feeding deer by hand outside the hotel. This is frightening because it is not a natural occurrence.

“It is having a severe impact on the lives of farmers and their families.”

‘No long-term plan’ by government

Senator Fiona O’Loughlin said that she has ongoing engagement with the IFA branches covering Kildare and west Wicklow, with this issue coming up “quite a number of times”.

“Only recently, about three weeks ago, there was a consultation meeting on the CAP with the Minister McConalogue in Kilcullen and farmers from west Wicklow brought up this issue.

“At a subsequent meeting last week, I asked about one of those farmers and was told that he had lost 25% of his herd to TB the week before because of the overrun of deer in the area. That is absolutely shocking.”

The senator said that she is “really concerned” that the government “has no long-term plan to protect the lands and livelihoods of those who live in this area and that the deer population will be allowed to remain unsustainable”.

“There is no doubt that the surge in the deer population is impacting on our grasslands and our crops and aiding in the spread of bovine TB,” the senator continued.

“The implementation of the wildlife control programme in Wicklow by the Department of Agriculture is not to the standard required. The Minister of State [Malcolm Noonan] committed additional resources in the budget to the wildlife control programme for next year.

“Will he assure farmers in Kildare and, particularly, west Wicklow that this money will be fully utilised in providing the staff resources necessary to implement a timely and effective wildlife control programme on the ground? This is very important.

“Senator Casey spoke about deer coming right up to the hotel. There is no doubt that they are encroaching further each year and mixing with cattle, thereby contributing to the level of TB in the herd.”

‘Committed’ to the active management

Minister of State at the Department of Housing Malcolm Noonan said that while the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of the 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,” the minister said.

“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.”

He said that the NPWS is committed to the active management of the deer species within state-owned national parks and nature reserves.

“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.”

He said he has met with the Irish Deer Commission along with 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,” he added.

“It is critically important that we understand and appreciate the scale of the challenges we are facing regarding deer management from a biodiversity point of view, and the spread of disease.”

Manage the deer herd

Senator Casey drew attention to “the Joint Approach to Deer Management of 2010, the Wicklow Deer Management Project 2018 and a number of pilot schemes in between”.

“None of them are addressing the situation,” he added.

“The Department of Housing is the largest landowner in the Wicklow Mountains because it owns the Wicklow Mountains National Park. The second largest owner is another state body, Coillte.

“The department therefore has the ability to manage and cull the deer herd. There is no natural predator for the deer.

“I am not proposing to rewild the Wicklow hills and introduce wolves, but if we did so, the deer population could be controlled. There is no natural predator to manage deer in Wicklow, so we have to do it.”