The number of deer being culled each year in Ireland is growing, as is the number of licensed deerstalkers and the number of Section 42 permits (to shoot deer outside of hunting season) being issued. According to the Irish Deer Commission, a record 78,000 wild deer were culled between February 2022 and February 2023, up from 55,000 in the previous 12-month period. <\/p>\n
One of the people facilitating that rise is Ronan Gorman, chief executive of Country Sports Ireland (CSI), a national representative body for country sports that offers training courses for prospective deerstalkers. <\/p>\n
\u201cDeer do need to be managed,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s incumbent on all of us that we do that efficiently in terms of culling the right animals and achieving a sustainable population, but also doing it in a way that is as humane as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
A humane shot is one that \u201cwill kill the deer quickly and cleanly\u201d, Gorman explains. A deerstalking course covers shooting accuracy and practical safety, initially offering a broad presentation on deer management followed by a written assessment. <\/p>\n
[\u00a0Ella McSweeney: Deer pressure – I need a licence to cullOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n CSI also teaches courses on deer hunting and \u201clarge wild game meat hygiene\u201d, which enables successful learners to provide deer carcasses to regulated food establishments. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you gralloch the deer, as we call it, cleaning it out, you do that in a way that doesn\u2019t contaminate the carcass,\u201d Gorman says. \u201cYou transport it and store it in the right way. That course is a mandatory requirement if you want to supply carcasses to an approved game-handling establishment. You have to be a trained hunter to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n A deer management strategy group was established in 2022 by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine<\/a>, with support from the National Parks and Wildlife Service<\/a> (NPWS). <\/p>\n It conducted a public consultation in December of that year, drawing more than 1,500 respondents. Some 86 per cent of them suggested deer culling as a main solution to deer management issues, with better land management practices (78 per cent) and a successful venison market (70 per cent) also favoured.<\/p>\n Representatives for the strategy group appeared before an Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food in recent weeks. They mentioned those potential solutions, as well as scope for more co-ordinated thinking on the topic and improved data collection around the deer population and the constraints facing Ireland\u2019s market for wild venison.<\/p>\n The strategy group\u2019s chair, Teddy Cashman, noted that improved data collection would \u201cclose the traceability loop\u201d for venison, unlocking market opportunities and making it easier to get the product on shelves.<\/p>\n Venison also needed \u201csuitable game-handling and storage facilities\u201d, Cashman said. In areas with higher deer populations, these facilities could improve preservation of deer carcasses and allow a hunter to amass more viable venison in one sitting. Funding has been approved for five refrigerated larders to store carcasses in such locations, he added.<\/p>\n [\u00a0Time to \u2018take the snobbery out of venison\u2019 and embrace it as a cheaper beef alternative?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Cashman said he was told at the time of the strategy group\u2019s formation in 2022 that there were 600,000 deer in Ireland, \u201cplus or minus 200,000\u201d. He said we knew \u201cthe numbers increased dramatically over the Covid period because there was very little hunting done\u201d.<\/p>\n Gorman says a reliance on anecdotal information is akin to \u201cfeeling our way in the dark a bit\u201d in managing deer population. He agrees, however, with the \u201cwidespread perception\u201d that the number is rising.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see a diversity of people [on deerstalking courses],\u201d Gorman says. \u201cWe see a lot of farmers, for example, who are taking matters into their own hands in terms of going and acquiring skills and knowledge to manage deer sustainably on their own land.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also see a number of people who don\u2019t traditionally come from a country sports background but are very much into a way of living that is sustainable and ecological. They think they can play a part in managing wild deer populations, but also when they harvest an animal, they can consume high-quality, low-input, organic, healthy meat with no food miles.\u201d<\/p>\n Gorman believes culling is the only form of deer management that could be widely effective. The \u201conly other method that merits any consideration\u201d is fencing, he suggests, but adds that, on a wide scale, it would be too expensive. <\/p>\n One option, which did not receive much consideration at those recent Oireachtas committee meetings, is the reintroduction of an apex predator for wild deer. <\/p>\n \u201cThere is a perfect solution for all of this, and that is the reintroduction of the wolf,\u201d says Killian McLaughlin, founder of Wild Ireland, an animal sanctuary in Donegal devoted to native species Ireland has lost over the years. <\/p>\n![\"Ronan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2L7L5KCNYNDEPJ2K7AKMGBIGSY.jpg\")
Ronan Gorman at a bog on the outskirts of Kilrea, Co Derry. Photograph: Paul Faith <\/p>\n
![\"Killian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/NA5BOLLIT7ZDOZSO57JKPTWTPU.jpg\")
Killian McLaughlin with a red deer in the Wild Ireland Sanctuary in Burnfoot, Co Donegal. Photograph: Joe Dunne <\/p>\n