Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A claim has been made that licences to shoot the highly protected red deer in Killarney National Park and its vicinity are being sold for substantial sums. A detailed report of at least one alleged instance where a red deer stag was shot by a hunter tourist who paid thousands of euro to a commercial company for the experience has been made to the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The stag was shot out of season under a permit issued to a landowner under strict conditions, which was allegedly obtained by a commercial company. That is a serious matter, if it is true. If any culling is to be done, it should only be of the non-indigenous sika species and not red deer. Only aged or infirm red deer should be culled. That species was down to 60 in number in 1970 but now there are more than 600 in the herd.My information is that the Department does not issue so-called section 42 licences to non-Department wildlife personnel other than landowners who are suffering crop damage on their own lands. Only ten of these are in existence under very strict conditions. We all know that deer can be dangerous and can wander onto roads and so on. On the western side of Killarney, which I am very familiar with, it is largely sika deer and they have been hit a few times by cars and could cause an accident. There are signs everywhere warning motorists.