THE GOVERNMENT HAS announced changes to Ireland’s deer management strategy, which will include reviewing Open Season windows in a bid to curb the animal’s population.

It will involve targetting deer in five “hotspot” counties by establishing local management units and researching the potential of an independent deer management agency.

However, they concerns have been met by concern by the Irish Deer Commission, a group comprising of hunters and conservationists, which said it fears attempts have been underway to reduce the species to the “level of vermin”.

The Commission, one of the stakeholders involved in the strategy’s formation talks alongside farmer and landowner groups, said it fears changes to shooting season windows will lead to animal welfare issues.

Today’s announcement has been welcomed by farming representatives, with the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICSMA) describing it as a “long overdue” commitment to a deer cull and a “more proactive” approach to managing the deer population.

ICSMA president Pat McCormack said that for at least a decade farmers had been expressing mounting concerns about both the surge in deer numbers and their geographic expansion out of traditional areas of habitat.

McCormack said that the expanding deer population has played a role in spreading bovine TB, in addition to issues around road safety.

A statement from the group urged Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue to move ahead with his decision and “begin the cull” in January 2024.

In its statement responding to the announcement, Irish Deer Commission spokesperson Damien Hannigan said that the singling out of five counties as hotspots with an expanding deer population – Wicklow, Galway, Waterford, Cork and Tipperary – was “premature” as no official headcount has been carried out to date.

“Currently a record number of wild deer are being culled in Ireland with over 60,000 deer culled annually,” he said, adding that the figure does not include those killed on roads, nor the “significant issue of the illegal killing of wild deer”, known as deer poaching.

Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue said the “growing deer population is a considerable problem” and he intends on actioning the recommendations “immediately” in the new year.

Minister for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan added that the “overabundance” of any species can be highly damaging to biodiversity.

“In the case of wild deer, the most significant and obvious impact is on native woodlands. Deer browsing can prevent the natural regeneration of these habitats and inhibit their expansion, which is a particularly serious issue in ancient and long-established woodlands and can also devastate newly-planted woodlands,” he said.

“I’m pleased to welcome this report and the pathway it sets out towards the sustainable management of wild deer populations in Ireland, which will also bring benefits for farmland, forestry and road safety, as well as nature. I would like to thank [strategy chairman] Teddy Cashman and the other members of the group for the work carried out to date and also the significant input and engagement by all stakeholders.”

The current open culling season for female deer in Ireland – except for red deer in Co Kerry where red deer are legally protected – is 1 November to 28 February.

An alignment with Northern Ireland’s season, where the female deer are culled from 1 November to 31 March, has been proposed as a short term measure covering the first nine months of the strategy, with a review set to take place following this.

The alignment is considered “more humane” by the Irish Deer Commission but Hannigan said fears remain over the impact further extensions may have.

He explained that changes to the open hunting seasons will be “unpopular with many hunters”, as culling females in March will mean deer are heavily pregnant, while any potential extension to the hunting season for male deer will cause animal welfare issues in upland areas as male deer are in “poor condition following the breeding season and during bleak winter months when venison quality is poor”.