It is hoped that 10 deer management units will be established in “hot spots” around the country over the next 12 months, according to the chair of the Irish Deer Management Strategy Group (IDMSG).
Teddy Cashman, who is also a dairy farmer from Cork, made the comments at a meeting chaired by Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Forestry Committee chair Jason Fleming in Co. Kerry this week.
In December, the IDMSG published a report containing 15 actions to tackle the issue of deer, eight of which are recommended for early implementation.
Cashman told the meeting that a programme manager will be appointed in the coming months and work will then get underway on establishing the units.
“Deer has been everyone’s responsibility and none for the last number of years so we need to get a proper structure in place to get the process off the ground,” he said.
Cashman said that co-ordinators will be put in place to bring the new units around the country together.
“It’s all about collaboration and getting people together to organise in a local area, get appropriate hunters, set targets that need to be achieved and to get the work done,” he said.
“What we’re targeting is to get 10 deer management units set up over the next 12 months. There could be two of those in Kerry, there could be six of them in Wicklow and two or three in other parts of the country,” he added.
Deer management
Around 87% of 1,500 respondents to a survey carried out by the IDMSG called for a national deer cull.
The government is currently working on changes to the open season for hunting deer.
Cashman said there is a “good possibility” that the two seasons for hunting male and female deer will be extended this year.
He added that the European Union is currently considering classifying Sika deer as an invasive species and if that happens these deer could be shot at any time of the year.
The IDMSG is also working to streamline the process for the granting of Section 42 licences by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), which allow for the hunting of deer out of season.
The NPWS has allocated an additional staff to this area which will be addressed this year.
Negotiations are also underway with Coillte and the NPWS about increasing culling of deer on State lands.
Cashman said that on State lands where there are large numbers of deer, contract hunters may be considered.
The meeting heard that anyone hunting deer must have the correct licence from the NPWS to do so.
Venison
Cashman said that the creation of a sustainable wild venison market is “one of the biggest issues that needs to be addressed” and this may need to be subsidised by government initially.
The meeting heard that enhanced infrastructure needs to be put in place for venison including more storage larders for carcasses around the country.
Work is underway to remove the limit currently placed on hunters for marketing deer to directly to the hospitality sector.
Cashman said that the government has committed funding “for the first stage of the process”, while a business plan will need to be developed by the group to secure funds for further parts of the project.
“We’re not here about exterminating deer or taking them out of the scenario. We’re about trying to get an equilibrium in place over a period of time where they can exist for themselves. It’s about sustainable numbers of deer really around the country.
“The impacts deer are having have increased exponentially over the last number of years, Now whether that’s out of control or however you describe it, but the impacts are very visible and have become a lot more visible than they were in the past.
“We haven’t got good deer numbers to work with, so we have to look at where the impacts are the most severe to deal with first,” he said.