On behalf of our members I thank the committee for its invitation to brief it today on the issues and concerns we have raised in respect of the recently published Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2010.
I acknowledge the courtesy and assistance we have received from the committee secretariat, notably Mr. Pat Neary, in preparing for this session.
I am the secretary of the Wild Deer Association of Ireland. I am accompanied by Mr. Pat Scully, our chairman, Mr. Liam Nolan, secretary of the Deer Alliance, which is the body charged with assessment and certification of licensed hunters hunting on Coillte forest property, and Mr. Thomas Murphy, vice chairman of the Irish Deer Society, an organisation which represents deer stalkers. Our associations represent more than 1,500 deer stalkers throughout the country. Our interest goes beyond one of sport and extends into the training and certification of hunters in the skills of deer stalking as well as into the area of the conservation of our deer population.
As members will be aware, there has been considerable public and political controversy about the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill. That is because the Bill is designed to give effect to the commitment in the renegotiated programme for Government "to ban stag hunting". Several statements and comments have been made by the Minister, Deputy John Gormley, as well as by other members of the Green Party, that suggested that the phrase "to ban stag hunting" referred only to their proposal to ban the Ward Union Staghounds in County Meath. However, the controversy over the banning of the Ward Union Hunt must not be allowed to obscure the fact that the Bill goes much further than that single objective.
For the first time ever in law, section 3(2) creates a new offence that will curb, inhibit and possibly render unworkable the officially recognised and endorsed method of deer stalking. Section 3(2) states:
Subject to subsection (3), a person, including the holder of a licence or permission granted under this Act, who hunts deer with two or more dogs shall be guilty of an offence.
In simple terms, deer stalkers are now limited to only one dog. I will explain the purpose of dogs in deer stalking. Unlike other forms of hunting, it is not to seek and find a live quarry. It is quite the opposite. The dogs are used to locate a fallen deer extremely quickly so that the animal may be despatched humanely. When a deer is wounded, it immediately retreats and hides in deep cover. Without the assistance of dogs, it could take stalkers several days to locate a wounded deer or the deer might never be found. Thus, the purpose of using dogs is an entirely humane one.
The proposed limit to only one dog is a fundamental change to the way deer stalking has always been conducted. When a small group of hunters go out together for the sport of pitting themselves against nature and their quarry, several of them may bring a dog with them. Often, this is a way of training and developing a young dog into the required level of proficiency in locating deer.
Apart from the requirements of having a gun licence and a licence to hunt deer, the normal practice for deer stalkers is to lease an area of forestry land from Coillte for the purposes of stalking the deer on it. This has the obvious benefit of reducing the damage caused to saplings and young trees by foraging deer. It is a requirement of the Coillte lease that the stalker must have access to a dog or dog trained for the purpose of tracking deer, including injured deer.
Thousands of hectares of State forestry are leased for deer stalking for five-year terms. The annual leasing cost to a licensed hunter will range from several hundred euro to many thousands of euro, depending on acreage and cull numbers involved. The annual leasing cost for a forest in north Wicklow, for example, with high deer density and close to the centre of human population, could run to €20,000 to €30,000 per year. This revenue, payable annually and with commitment to a five-year licence duration, is hugely important to Coillte.
Many of these leases will come up for renewal in June. With the publication of the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill, deer stalkers are faced with a dilemma as to whether they should renew these expensive leases. If section 3 is enacted as it stands a few months into the new leases, they could be stuck with costly leases with a severely restricted hunting capability. This is creating huge uncertainty and could lead to a reduction in the number of new leases taken up. The result will be that the deer population will begin to get out of control and cause serious damage to forestry plantations and adjoining farms.
We have met senior management of Coillte to discuss this matter. It is fair to state that it expressed deep concern about the implications of creating this new offence and it will write to the Minister, Deputy Gormley, to express its concern. We also met recently with senior officials of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It is a fair representation of that meeting to state that they too are concerned about the implications and it is their view that section 3(2) must be referred to the Minister, the Attorney General and the Parliamentary Counsel to see if a wording may be devised to remedy the defects. A report in The Irish Times on Thursday, 20 May stated:
Earlier it emerged that Minister for the Environment John Gormley is prepared to alter forthcoming wildlife legislation to allay the concerns of deerstalkers who claim that further restrictions are about to be imposed.
A meeting took place this week between senior officials in the Department of the Environment and representatives of deerstalking associations who are concerned about the implications of the recently-published Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2010.
Mr. Gormley's spokesman said the officials gave assurances at the meeting that there was "no intention to restrict traditional deerstalking", and that the proposed legislation "could and would be amended to ensure clarity on this issue".
It is important to state that there is no public demand for the imposition of the 'one dog' requirement. There is no controversy about the way deer stalking is conducted. Quite the contrary, more than 30,000 deer are culled every year under licence from the Minister and some Green Party representatives claim that the Minister has issued more licences to stalk deer than any of his predecessors. No reason has been given for this proposed change. There was no prior consultation with licensed deer stalkers, who now number more than 4,000, on this Bill. The first they knew about it was when the Bill was published. No regulatory impact assessment of the Bill has been conducted, as recommended in the Government guidelines.
In short, this situation is a total mess. How could this happen? Is this a way to treat law-abiding citizens? In the absence of a statement by the Minister on his reasons for proposing section 3, we must give him the benefit of the doubt as to his bona fides. However, it is beginning to look as if in his headlong rush to ban the Ward Union staghounds, he is trampling over deer stalking as well.
We appeal to the committee for its advice and support in preventing a great wrong from being perpetrated. It would be helpful if the committee heard directly from Coillte and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Perhaps the Minister and his officials could appear before the committee to explain the rationale for section 3. At the minimum, the Minister needs to agree to initiate consultation with all the stakeholder affected by the Bill as well as to conduct a full regulatory impact assessment.
We are prepared to enter wholeheartedly into the process of dialogue recommended by the committee. However, we foresee no solution other than the total deletion of section 3(2). We are open to persuasion, but we do not believe a suitable formula of words can be found. There is neither demand for nor support by anyone for the introduction of a "one dog rule" into deer stalking. This would safeguard the current humane method of deer stalking, which has worked well not only for us but for Coillte and the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Go raibh maith agat.