Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very grateful to the office of the Ceann Comhairle for allowing this very important issue to be aired in the Chamber tonight. I am grateful to the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan for taking the debate.

The issue is that the deer population in County Kerry has exploded beyond what we can put up with. That is the way I will put it. I will let the House know what is happening on a daily basis. If one was to leave Killarney and head out on the Killarney-Cork road from Poulagower down to Kilgarvan and into Sneem, with people going to Glencar, all emanating from the Killarney National Park and from all over, the most common sight one will see on the road is deer. Previously, this used to be very late at night or during the middle of the night when it is quiet but now we can actually have them at any time. We have had young people crashing, and I am sure we have had deaths where people's cars have left the road. The evidence of the deer is not there because it might not have been struck. We have had tragedies over the years that could have been put down to deer coming out onto the road. There is an amount of damage and a monetary cost to people. I will give an example. A fine respectable person was going to work very early in the morning and crashed his car into a deer. The following morning, his fine hard-working son hit a deer. They are neighbours of my own. These are people who were going about their work and who lost two cars out of the one house in two days. It is a daily occurrence now if one is going over Moll's Gap or on any of these roads I have just mentioned. The people in Glencar are haunted with deer. Only last weekend a lady was attacked by a stag and was airlifted to hospital. This is no longer tolerable. This is no longer something we can put up with.

In the past, we had an excellent forester, who I very much compliment because he was a desperately hard-working man. Mr. P.J. Bruton was our forester-in-charge in the Killarney area for many years. When he was in charge, every week he culled 200 deer out of the Killarney National Park. There was an export arrangement for them, they were not being wasted and they were put to good use. This kept our deer figures in check. What happened, however, when he was retired and gone and not in that role anymore? Nobody was doing this. Nobody was organising it. Since then, we have got to the stage where it is not popular to say that we should have a deer cull. If I was looking to be popular I would not be saying what I am telling the Minister of State now. I am saying now that it has gone beyond a cull; at this stage we require an eradication programme because the deer population has increased so much.

I have not even touched yet on what this means for our farming community. I will now give an example of a farmer, who came to me in recent days. I know the Minister of State will appreciate the story. The farmer went into his field in the morning and what was inside in the field? It was 26 deer. That is the same as a herd of cattle from your neighbour being on your grass in the morning and eating all that you had. The Minister of State is aware of the cost of fertiliser, and we have all heard what the cost of fertiliser will be this year. People will be growing grass but could have 60% of it being eaten, in many cases, by roaming deer.

Whatever else a farmer can afford to do, he cannot afford to feed the deer in the national park. I have not even touched on what that means for our fences. The fences farmers are putting up are very expensive. The Minister of State knows how difficult it is to string and put tension on wire surrounding grounds. When deer jump they hit, break, get caught in and destroy fences.

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