Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 May 2023
547. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will outline the members of the public that were involved in the survey in relation to the first major public consultation into the impact of deer, that is, gun clubs, farming groups and so on; the research that has been carried out into non-lethal deer population control; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25616/23]
View answer548. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 536 of 16 May 2023, if he will outline the person or body that will be the stakeholders in the ‘stakeholder working groups to develop recommendations to managing the deer population effectively’. [25617/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 547 and 548 together.
As the Deputy is aware, policy responsibility for deer and other wildlife resides with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) , within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
I am aware of the importance of the sustainable management of our national deer population for agriculture, forestry as well as overall biodiversity within nature ecosystems. In order to address this the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and I convened the Deer Management Strategy group last Autumn, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Teddy Cashman. On foot of a recommendation of the strategy group an open public consultation on the management of deer was launched late last year by myself and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
This was the first major public consultation into the impact of deer and it received over 1,500 submissions from all over the country and all walks of life. Respondents were asked to categorise themselves as follows;
Individual rural (35.2%),
Individual urban / suburban (16.7%),
Farmer (14.6%),
Landowner (13.1%),
Other (8.2%),
Forester (4.2%),
Ecologist (2.8%),
Academic (1.2%),
NGOs (1%),
Public body (0.9%),
Farm representative organisations (0.8%),
Trade body / membership organisation (0.7%),
Research organisation (0.2%) and
Local authority (0.2%).
The role of the Deer Management strategy group is to develop a strategy for sustainable management of the national deer population. It does not include a research mandate and is not conducting research on specific population control methods.
The next phase in the process is the development of a series of recommendations with five sub-committees under the following headings.
• Legislation,
• Venison,
• Collaboration / Groups,
• Training / Education,
• Solutions for land management.
Stakeholders participating in these subcommittees include representatives of deer hunting and conservation groups, venison processing and marketing representative groups, farm representative organisations, forestry organisations, Coillte, Wicklow Uplands Council, the Wicklow Uplands Council, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and my department.
