People should be compensated if damage is caused to their private property by deer.
That’s the view of Fianna Fáil councillor Michael Cahill.
He brought a motion on the issue before the recent Kenmare Municipal District meeting.
Cllr Michael Cahill says deer are roaming everywhere around the county and says he’s often hearing of stories about near misses and collisions involving the animal.
He says lives being lost as a result of deer, adding that along with being a safety hazard on our roads, deer are also known to enter properties outside of the National Park, damaging fencing, plants and shrubs, at a considerable cost to the owners.
He says he knowns of one lady in her 80s, who lives alone, and has had her property destroyed by deer four times.
Cllr Cahill says the issue needs to be tackled and believes that people should be compensated if damage is being caused to their private property.
He wants Kerry County Council to write to the National Parks and Wildlife Service to ascertain what the optimum number of deer should be in Killarney National Park and its surroundings, and if it has any plans to compensate in such cases where there's damage.
Independent councillor Dan McCarthy says he sees the damage being caused by deer for those who live near the National Park.
He says farmers should be able to cull sika deer, adding that ten years ago you could get up to 30 bales of silage from a field but now the same farmer might only get up to eight bales from that field as there could be 15 to 16 deer in it each morning.
