Councillor warns of road accident death if action not taken to cut Tipperary's deer population
Warning issued at Tipperary County Council meeting during debate on Irish Deer Management Strategy Group report
Tipperary County Council has appealed to the Government and State agencies to urgently roll out measures recommended in a new national plan for tackling the over population of deer after being warned a motorist will be killed in this county if action isn’t taken.
The Council has issued this appeal in letters it has sent to the Minister for Agriculture & Marine Charlie McConalogue, the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) and Coillte in the wake of a debate on the Irish Deer Management Strategy Group’s report at its February monthly meeting.
The report, which was presented to the council meeting, lists Tipperary along with Waterford, Donegal and Galway as deer over population “hot spots” and notes the reduction in deer hunting and management activities during the Covid pandemic exacerbated the problem.
The report recommends a series of short and medium term action to cull and manage deer numbers nationwide ranging from changes to the deer hunting season and incentivising hunting to deer management measures like fencing and revising forest designs.
The letters to the Department of Agriculture, NPWS and Coillte were proposed by Clogheen Cllr Marie Murphy, who said the report can’t be allowed to “sit on a shelf” because action on its recommendations is needed.
“This is a very important issue. Someone is going to be killed in a road traffic accident sooner rather than later unless something is done to cull deer,” she bluntly told the council meeting.
Cllr Murphy has personal experience of the danger deer pose to motorists as she was in two car accidents involving deer in the last nine years. She described her community at the foot of the Knockmealdown Mountains as a deer “hot spot”.
She spoke of seeing a herd of about 30 deer on the Clogheen to Goatenbridge Road and recalled witnessing 12 deer crossing the fields between her home and her sister’s home. Deer were also often on the Clogheen to Ardfinnan Road.
The Fine Gael councillor recounted how a man driving a brand new van hit a deer on the Clogheen to Ardfinnan Road and the van was a write-off. “That is happening time and time again,” she pointed out.
Cllr Murphy is so concerned about the road safety danger posed by the over population of deer in her area that she is one of 1,500 members of the public, community groups, organisations, State bodies and agencies that made submissions to the Irish
Deer Management Strategy Group during the public consultation phase of the report’s prepartion. There was also a submission from Tipperary/Cahir/Cashel Municipal District.
She said she was shocked that only five submissions came from local government.
Cllr Murphy cited the results of the public consultation survey published in the report where road traffic accidents, road safety issues, biodiversity damage and damage to agricultural crops and grassland were listed as problems caused by the over population of deer. Over 86% of respondents believed a deer cull was important to address the issue.
Cllr Roger Kennedy seconded Cllr Murphy’s proposal to write to the Minister, NWPS and Coilte. He agreed there needs to be a cull of deer as the deer population “exploded” during the pandemic due to travel restrictions and hunting licenses not being issued.
He said from Dundrum to Clonoulty right up to Slievenamon, deer were rampant travelling all over the place destroying agricultural crops. Their over population was also leading to the destruction of young deciduous forest.
There were numerous accidents involving deer in the Galtee Mountains area and he has requested road signs warning motorists about deer crossing for certain roads in his district
The Cashel councillor pointed out that there was an informative public meeting attended by over 100 people in Clonoulty about the issue before Christmas.
He referred to how Cllr Murphy highlighted during her speech that almost half the 1,285 Section 42 deer hunting licences issued last year were in Wicklow with the remaining spread around the rest of the country.
Cllr Kennedy noted that Tipperary had the second highest number of licences and many of the Section 42 licences issues in Wicklow were for Tipperary people.