Mr. Tomás Bourke:

I omitted to refer to that issue which was brought up by previous speakers.

The IFA has made detailed proposals in respect of two issues related to deer. The first deals the substantive issue of TB as it affects the national deer population. A national deer management forum was established with an independent chairperson. It held a number of meetings up until about 18 months ago. Unfortunately, it has not convened since. Its purpose was to establish, as suggested in the title, a national deer management programme to sustain deer numbers at levels that could be maintained within their natural habitat and to avoid increased interaction with cattle and increased disease risks. The first component that must happen at the higher level, effectively outside the TB component and ERAD, to some extent, is the management of deer. We must re-establish the national deer management forum and have some meaningful output from it.

The second proposal, in respect of which there has been some activity stemming from the forum before it ceased, was for targeted pilot areas. Clearly, where deer are associated with a TB outbreak, the same approach applied to badgers has to be applied to deer, involving a density reduction surrounding the breakdown area. It has to be co-ordinated by State agencies that have access to all of the information required. Unfortunately, as referenced, deer cover a huge hinterland. Therefore, there is no point in trying to manage deer on one or two farms specific to the TB outbreak. One has to take in a far broader area if it is to have a meaningful impact. That has to be done before we work on the national strategy because these instances are happening and have huge health implications on farms. This second component needs to be addressed because we are aware of five to eight regions where the density of deer is at an unacceptable level because they are encroaching onto farmland. If we fail to address the national deer population, when we sit here year next year, we will have double the population. Ten years ago deer were specific to County Wicklow and one or two other regions. Now there are very few counties which do not have some area iin which there is an issue with deer encroaching onto farmland, causing huge damage to crops, trees and fences and increasing the risk of disease.