The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘We need proper management plan for deer in National Park’
A PROPER management plan and engagement between the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Kerry County Council in relation to deer in Killarney National Park was called for by Fine Gael Senator Paul Coghlan in the Upper House.
In the last few years, he said the deer are encroaching on farmland all over the place, well outside the National Park. “I know they are a wild animal and we cannot say they are totally the responsibility of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, but in a sense they are because that is the deer’s’ primary home,” he said. “I know that farmers can get a licence, and if the deer are on their property and damaging vegetation and feed, they can deal with it. There has been a significant cull this year of about 97 animals. Once the culls are happening properly in the open season, I think it is proper.”
Senator Coghlan said there is not an exact count for the native red or the sika, but the sika are also growing in number and they are an imported species. “The Kerry Deer Society, of which I am a member, would not mind seeing a huge reduction in the number of sika,” he said. “They are more difficult to deal with than red deer.”
“The concern is among neighbouring landowners on all sides of Killarney National Park - north, south, east and west,” he said. “The deer are even encroaching slightly on the town, coming in at King’s Bridge, opposite St. Mary’s Cathedral. There are grass verges there and there has been some good grass growth. The deer have been encroaching during the night and have been photographed right outside the Cathedral gates. That has been a new development.”
In response, Minister of State Jim Daly said as part of the Department’s ongoing proactive management of the habitats and species in Killarney National Park, it is proposed to conduct a Killarney National Park deer census during 2018. This work will be undertaken by external specialists. It is hoped to initiate this process shortly.
He said the Department has granted over 5,000 deer hunting licences for the current deer hunting season. Licences are issued for an annual period with all licences expiring on 31 July 2018. Last year the Department issued 21 section 42 permits for deer in Kerry. To date this year, eight section 42 permits for deer have been granted for Kerry with nine applications currently under consideration.
“There are no plans to fence the National Park,” he said. “Fencing it would not be a viable solution and would not achieve the desired results for a number of reasons. The presence of deer is not confined to the national parks and consequently fencing of these properties would serve no practical purpose in terms of wild deer control or management.”
Government ignoring plight of small and mediumsized farmers
THE ignoring of the light of small family farm in the current fodder crisis was highlighted in the Dáil by Sinn Féin Deputy Martin Ferris.
“I come from a small family farm and am proud of it,” he said. “It is part of my roots. My party and I represent the small family farms, the backbone of this country, who have been blackguarded and neglected by the policies of successive Governments that did not give a God damn about whether they survived.
“It suits them that they are gone off the face of the earth. That is what is happening now as well. Who has been hit hardest? It is not the big farmers as they have adequate fodder, it is the small and medium-sized family farm. They are the ones that have been hit and that have been hurt most. I would not mind but we knew about it. We were told about it in this House and we argued about it. The Minister relied on his report from Teagasc. We came back to the issue in January and it was the same situation.”
Speaking during a debate on the fodder crisis, Deputy Ferris said the Minister could gloss it up any way he likes but the “God damn policy of the Government towards the weak, small and medium-sized family farm is non-existent”.
“There is no policy whatsoever to help them,” he said. “The Minister can say he allocated €1.5 million towards import transportation costs but what has that done for farmers? They are paying between €40 and €50 for a bale of silage if they can afford it. Farmers are borrowing money in order to buy feed. They have been blackguarded and neglected by successive Governments. I hope the weather will help the farmers in some way because they are wasting their time if they are depending on the Government to help them.”
Speaking during the same debate, Independent Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said farmers are being treated unfairly and there is real hardship out there. “The Minister has a chance to help,” he said.” I was glad to hear a colleague speak the truth about the suckler herd, as not many people have done so tonight. That herd is under threat and there is a need for drastic assistance because it is not currently financially sensible to keep a cow for a year and get a calf from her. It does not pay. Unless the Minister and his Department wake up to that we will see the suckler herd under threat. The Minister knows that like everything, it is like a cog in a machine. We need the suckler men to be there for the future of farming in this country. I ask the Minister to please help as his help and that of the Department is needed.”
Deputy Danny Healy-Rae said the Minister gave back €106 million to the Exchequer in 2016 and over €70 million last year. “The Minister should not give back a penny this year and give it instead to the farmers out there in Kerry and West Cork. There is only a distance of 20 miles between us. The Minister knows those farmers are in trouble and he should do something about it. I am asking the Minister again about this. He should not forget those farmers as he is the Minister now.”
A free press should be free to criticize politicians
A FREE press should criticise politicians when they need to be criticised and should point out where wrong is done, Fianna Fáil Senator Mark Daly told the Upper House.
He asked the Seanad to support the motion Fianna Fáil will be bringing forward in respect of the Pulitzer Prize which was won by a small newspaper, The Storm Lake Times in rural Iowa. “That newspaper has only a circulation of 3,000 and a catchment population of 10,000,” he said. “Its editor won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 2017. The family running this business are the Cullens, originally from Kilkenny, five generations back.”
This issue is the acknowledgement of their great achievement of winning the Pulitzer Prize, he said. “The Iowa state Senate refused to acknowledge them winning the prize because they had been critical of President Trump,” he said. “The most important thing in any democracy is a free press. When it achieves greatly as this small newspaper has done, winning the most prestigious prize in journalism, I think it would be fitting and appropriate that its own state Senate would acknowledge that. In light of the fact that the Senate has not done so, it would be appropriate for the land of the ancestors of the Cullen family to acknowledge their great achievement. I ask the Leader to support that motion.”