Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 406: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of persons involved in deer farming; the extent to which the enterprise is expanding or otherwise; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24987/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Official data on deer farming is available from the Census of Agriculture which is carried out by the Central Statistics Office roughly every ten years. The first and so far only Census of Agriculture that included deer was in June 2000. This stated that there were farmed deer on 266 farms. Teagasc has estimated that the number of farms involved in deer production peaked in the mid 1990s at about 450 and they would estimate that the number currently stands at between 200 and 250.

The structure of deer farming has altered over the last ten years and the number of units has decreased. While there are fewer enterprises now, they are larger, more specialised and moving towards quality assured high value product outlets.