11% of reported cases where a vehicle was damaged but no one was injured, after hitting or swerving to avoid a deer, were in Kerry.
The director of research at the Road Safety Authority (RSA), Michael Rowland said seven years of Garda collision data had been assessed to determine the prevalence of deer-related collisions on Irish roads.
He was answering questions at a deer management discussion with the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture.
Between 2019 to 2025, 41 such collisions nationally resulted in serious or minor injuries.
This is fewer than one percent (1%) of all road casualties; no fatal collision was reported as having involved a deer.
Mr Rowland said there were almost 1,400 (1,382) collisions reported involving deer during the seven-year period from 2019 to 2025.
This is based on An Garda Síochána data.
In 2019, there were 122 incidents of material damage involving deer.
That has increased year on year to 262 collisions last year (2025).
Mr Rowland speculated that this trend was “possibly consistent” with an increase in the deer population.
He said Kerry has the highest number of car collisions involving deer recorded by An Garda Síochána.
Mr Rowland said it is important to note that Garda data is not necessarily a definitive record of deer-related collisions, as Gardaí do not keep a specific log of such cases.
FBD Insurance’s chief underwriting officer, Sean Kelleher, said its records show the number of claims has increased over recent years.
He told the committee that the claims are not evenly distributed across the country, with higher volumes concentrated in Kerry, Cork, Galway, Tipperary and Wicklow.
