Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan has rejected calls to reintroduce wolves back into Ireland.
The minister was responding to comments made by Green Party leader Eamon Ryan yesterday, Tuesday, October 1, to reintroduce wolves following a 233-year absence to help “rewild parts of the countryside”.
Speaking to RTÉ, Ryan said that the wolf would prey on deer and indirectly help forestry.
Taking to social media, Minister Madigan said that the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht “has no plans” to do so, adding that such a move would do considerable damage to farming.
“My department has no plans to reintroduce wolves in Ireland,” the tweet said.
My Department, @DeptAHG has no plans to reintroduce wolves in Ireland.
The reintroduction of a large predator which has been absent for 250 years might undermine existing conservation programmes and would do considerable damage to farming. https://t.co/qbx46JCOn8
— ⚖️Josepha Madigan (@josephamadigan) October 1, 2019
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Prior to this, speaking to RTÉ, deputy Ryan said: “The reintroduction of a large predator which has been absent for 250 years might undermine existing conservation programmes and would do considerable damage to farming.
“Would we bring back wolves into the country?
I think yes; bring back a sense of wilderness and bring back ecology in the sense that those wolves would prey on deer, which are actually holding back forestry at the present time.
“And you see what’s happened to other countries – you restore natural ecosystems that are more resilient, more attractive, that have much more diverse natural systems in a whole range of different ways,” the Green Party leader said.