The problem is the numbers they say aren't there it's just farmers think 1 deer is 2 many and if a car speeding hits one the say there 2 many. There was no real censuses of the number done and its all based on hear say. Of you were on the ground in those areas you would see that either in or out of season. They have a section 42 to which worked well if they were causing a problem it was looked at and permission to cull put of season. Just because Scotland did it doesn't make it right. And I can assure you deer numbers in donegal are nothing like numbers in Scotland. And the amount of poaching that goes on in Ireland is unreal and keeps numbers down and they hit a problem area then deer more or less eliminated. And also there is not the same access to game dealers here. And I was looking at it from even the deer welfare grounds. Like 3 months extra on stags and bucks how does that reduce numbers shoot females drop numbers
I can't speak for your part of the world, and poaching does go on all over the country, but the price for deer from the game dealers (GD) is so poor that there is little if any return for presenting deer to them. That being the case what's the motivation for poachers? Taking a significant risk with firearms in this jurisdiction for a very poor return.
A lot of my permissions are in sheep country, and the deer present a significant challenge to the raising of sheep profitably. Damaging fences, (sheep then escape and disperse) which must be repaired, eating fodder for stock, potentially acting as a reservoir for infectious disease and of course contributing to RTA's.
A large motivation for the current changes has been the surge in deer numbers in the Dublin/Wicklow area, leading to a significant increase in RTA's on the M7 & M9 and all the roads leading to Dublin in county Wicklow. There are other "hot spots" in Tipp and Waterford to add to the mix. Deputies Michael & Danny Healy-Rae have been highlighting the same issues for the Kerry area for quite some time due to the reservoir that the Bourne-Vincent National Park represent to the south of Killarney.
I think we'll need to "suck it and see". This and next years returns to the NPWS from deer stalkers will be indicative of the success or failure of this initiative. In November there was a lot of huffing and puffing about deer management teams to deal with "hot spots". Not a word since.
I agree the use of S42 licences are there to deal with specific problems, obviously not effectively enough. I'm of the opinion that the reduction in stalking during the Covid 19 epidemic gave the deer population a significant boost and we're now playing catch up!
