Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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606. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she is aware that deer cull returns provided by deer hunters to her Department have shown a continuous decline in the number of deer culled since 2009, at 15% decline nationally, despite her Department granting an additional 2,000 licences to hunt deer since 2005; that the Wild Deer Association of Ireland, the lead organisation representing those who work with deer and their management and a member of the Irish Deer Management Forum, recently stated that a national survey of deer hunters highlighted that 61% of deer hunters had seen a reduction in deer numbers in their area during the 2014-2015 deer hunting season; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27393/15]

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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607. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she is aware that permits granted by her Department to landowners under section 42 of the Wildlife Acts for the culling of deer outside the open hunting season due to crop damage and excessive deer numbers have declined nationally by 27% in the past two years, including for counties Galway, by 60%, Tipperary, by 44%, Wicklow, by 7%, and Waterford, by 38%, where claims of excessive deer numbers have been made recently, despite her Department never undertaking a census of deer numbers; if she agrees that the decline in these permits would suggest fewer landowners have an issue with deer damage and excessive deer numbers; that County Wicklow represents over one third of the annual national deer cull but, despite claims of excessive deer numbers, less than 5% of the farming population have requested permits under section 42 of the Wildlife Acts to control excessive deer numbers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27394/15]

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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608. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht further to Parliamentary Question No. 605 of 6 May 2015, if she is aware that in her reply there is no connection between deer range and deer numbers, and that her Department, other than in the case of some national parks, has never undertaken a national deer count, and so is not aware if deer numbers are increasing or decreasing nationally; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27395/15]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 606 to 608, inclusive, together.

I am advised that the deer population in Ireland increased greatly between 1990 and 2010. There has been some reduction in the number of deer legally shot in recent years, as well as a decrease in the number of section 42 permits granted under the Wildlife Acts. However, there is no current evidence to cause concern about a reduced range and number of deer across the country.

As I indicated in my reply to Question No 605 of 6 May 2015, the report Deer Management in Ireland – A Framework for Actionrecommends a series of actions on deer management and conservation in a number of areas, including addressing the impact of deer in places where they are widespread. An Irish Deer Management Forum had been established to implement the various actions listed in the Report.

My Department does not have the resources to carry out or coordinate a national deer count. A large part of the deer population lives in forestry or woodland and it is particularly difficult to achieve reliable counts in such dense cover. There is no evidence to suggest that there is any threat to Ireland's deer population.