Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

I move amendment No a1:

In page 3, between lines 16 and 17, to insert the following:

"(2) A permission may not be granted under section 42 of this Act to enable the hunting of female deer between 1 May and 30 September in any year.".

This amendment provides that permission for culling female deer between 1 May and September will not be granted under section 42. We tabled this amendment because Wild Deer Ireland raised this issue with the Minister. Its concern is that the Minister is currently issuing licences to land owners under section 42 of the Wildlife Act to cull female deer from May to September at a time when female deer give birth to fawns. If a female deer who has fawns is shot the fawns will be orphaned and will suffer a horrible death because they will have no mother to look after them and will starve to death.

If we had stakeholder involvement this could have been the type of issue the Minister could have addressed in terms of the conservation of wildlife and protection of deer. Everybody accepts the need to cull deer and that deer stalking is an acceptable activity but it must be done in a humane way which does not cause suffering. We tabled this amendment because it is appropriate to the issue of the protection of deer and wildlife. Would the Minister considering accepting this amendment or will he deal with the issue in another way?

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