{"id":660358,"date":"2026-10-20T12:48:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T12:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/660358\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T12:48:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T12:48:27","slug":"healy-rae-demands-more-extreme-measures-to-reduce-deer-population","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/660358\/","title":{"rendered":"Healy-Rae demands &#8216;more extreme measures&#8217; to reduce deer population"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Healy-Rae has called for \u201cmore extreme measures\u201d to tackle Ireland\u2019s \u2018exploding\u2019 deer population.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With no natural predators, the State authorises the culling of tens of thousands of deer every single year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Last year, 78,000 deer were culled and hunters believe that figure will need to significantly increase in the years ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstalk.com\/shows\/newstalk-breakfast-234855\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newstalk Breakfast<\/a>, Deputy Healy-Rae said the current numbers culled are insufficient and the deer population is putting people\u2019s lives at risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really believe that more extreme measures are actually required,\u201d he argued.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPerhaps a bounty to be placed on each deer that is called to encourage more people to shoot more deer and to eradicate them, particularly females and young females.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDepending on what part of the country you&#8217;re living in, we actually have daily strikes of deer where people are injured, property is damaged.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be honest, we actually have an unhealthy population of deer at the moment, because there are quite simply too many of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1622091\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792500505_605_2E0CGWK.jpg\" alt=\"A Red Deer at Killarney National Park in County Kerry\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\"\/> A Red Deer at Killarney National Park in County Kerry. Image: Robertharding \/ Alamy<\/p>\n<p>The independent TD for Kerry said ideally the deer population would be reduced by 70%, which would return it to a \u201cnormal place\u201d in which his constituents and deer could live in greater harmony.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA normal place is that you wouldn&#8217;t be seeing deer in places where you shouldn&#8217;t be seeing them because they should be up high in high lands and away from public roads and away from property,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut you&#8217;re at the stage now where we have deer coming to people&#8217;s lawns and around people&#8217;s houses, it&#8217;s totally ridiculous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Crucially, Deputy Healy-Rae believes that a smaller deer population would mean fewer car accidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He added that crashes involving deer and his constituents are now so common that most go unreported.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe RSA simply must wake up to this problem,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I&#8217;d ask them that, to please do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The RSA have been contacted for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wolves\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>An alternative solution to reducing the deer population would be to reintroduce wolves to Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1518441\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792500507_877_EBTA37.jpg\" alt=\"EBTA37 European gray wolf (Canis lupus lupus), four wolves feeding on a fallow deer, Germany\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\"\/> Four wolves feeding on a fallow deer in Germany. Picture by: Alamy.com.<\/p>\n<p>The animals were hunted to extinction in the 17th century and since then, deer have had no natural predators in Ireland except for mankind.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Conservationist Killian McLaughlin has argued that the current system of culling is ineffective and that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstalk.com\/news\/wolves-2264457\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the return of the wolf would mean \u201cnature can balance itself\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Main image: Micheal Healy-Rae and a deer. Pictures by: Alamy.com and RollingNews.ie.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Healy-Rae has called for \u201cmore extreme measures\u201d to tackle Ireland\u2019s \u2018exploding\u2019 deer population.\u00a0 With no natural predators,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-660358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}