Pine martens need to be culled - Dolan

Pine martens have become "common, are a danger to livestock and wildlife"  and need to be culled, were the views of one councillor who said the animal was introduced "supposedly to kill the grey squirrel." He said he witnessed a pine marten killing a curlew recently; a bird which is currently endangered. He continued that he understood that one of the omnivorous animals recently "got into a shed in the south and killed €15,000 worth of hens."
The pine marten is protected in Ireland by both national and international legislation and under the Irish Wildlife Acts it is an offence, except under licence, to capture or kill a pine marten, or to destroy or disturb its resting places.
Cllr Dolan also spoke of how, in 2019, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan called for the reintroduction of wolves to help re-wild the countryside and control deer numbers. "These things should not be allowed in here. I think that when pine martens kill animals, the people responsible for bringing them in should be responsible for what they do. We should have a complete cull on them in this country."
Cllr Dolan said he wanted to call on the Minister for Agriculture to revise plans that have been made for the reintroduction of these non-native species and others stressing "These plans should be halted."
He continued that many lambs are lost to pine martens each year and that "they don't kill for food. As bad as the fox is, he'll feed himself on the lamb but the pine marten kills for blood. They could kill 50 lambs in one field over one morning or night."