More calls for deer cull

Renewed calls for a major cull of wild deer in Tipperary were made at last week's meeting of the county council.

Before the meeting was the final report of the Irish Deer Management Strategy Group, which received over 1,500 submissions last year. Cllr Marie Murphy said it is clear that the recommendations of the report need to be urgently acted upon.

She spoke of increasing problems of large numbers of deer running onto public roads in the south of the county. Deer are impacting almost every local management activity, Cllr Murphy said, asking the council to write to Dept of Agriculture, National Parks & Wildlife Service and Coillte about the report. She also wanted to know how many licenses to shoot deer were issued in Tipperary last year.

Cllr Roger Kennedy understood that Tipperary had the second-highest number of deer-shooting licenses after Wicklow. The deer population increased greatly during the pandemic and poses a problem all over the county, he said.

Cllr John Rocky McGrath said he has been speaking about the problem for months. Deer are causing "absolute mayhem" and while there is a plan for a national cull, no one has provided any detail of how or when this cull will happen, Cllr McGrath said.

Cllr Joe Hannigan mentioned a recent road accident caused by deer in the Lower Ormond area. He made the point that the animals also spread TB.

Cllr Ger Darcy said road safety is the most important issue, but deer are also destroying crops and forestry. They must be shot in great numbers because there is no more humane way of culling them, he said.