Councillors in west Cork are calling on the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) to address the growing problem of wild deer on public roads across the region.
The issue was raised in a motion by Finbarr Harrington (Independent) at a recent meeting of Cork County Council’s West Cork Municipal District.
Mr Harrington proposed: “That this council would liaise with NPWS to address the major problem and many traffic accidents happening on our public roadways caused by the currently overpopulated deer and their link to the possible spread of disease in both humans and farm animals.”
Mr Harrington told the meeting he had received many calls from motorists all over west Cork who had near misses and accidents involving deer on the roads, particularly at night and in the early hours of the morning.
He said: “A lady from Urhan contacted me, she had ran into a deer on the road and, as well as the danger, it ended up costing her €3,000 to repair her car.
"There have been many close calls around Derryconnell, all along the Bantry line, the Macroom bypass, the overpopulation of deers is becoming a danger on the roads.”
Mr Harrington said that sika deer had also been linked to disease in cattle and Lyme disease in humans.
He added: “There needs to be a cull of deer in parts of west Cork. There probably needs to be a county-wide approach to this and we should also talk to our neighbours in Kerry about a joint approach.”
County Mayor Joe Carroll supported the motion. He said: “Something has to be done about these deer. They need to be investigated, they are definitely far more plentiful than they used to be."
Bantry councillor Danny Collins (Ind Ire) said that deer were an issue on the doorsteps during the last local election campaign. “They have been causing damage in Glengarriff and other places, it was an issue on the doorsteps and something needs to be done about it.”
Social Democrat councillor Isobel Towse said that she would “definitely not” be calling for a cull, while Fine Gael’s Noel O’Donovan said he supported the motion but said that the issue should be investigated by the NPWS in the first instance.
Eimear O’ Neill, acting municipal district officer, said that responsibility rests with the Department of Agriculture and the issue would be dealt with by the NPWS.
She said that last December the government published the report of the Deer Management Strategy Group which contained a number of short term recommendations including the appointment of a program manager nationally, local coordinators, as well as providing for the set up of Deer Management Units in “hot spot” areas and changes to the hunting season period.
At the time of the launch it was indicated that the strategy group would develop and advance an initial implementation plan for these and other short-term recommendations and report back to the minister within nine months. She said the council has sought an update from NPWS on progress and will inform councillors when they receive a response.
