I need to raise a road safety matter with the Taoiseach. On rural roads there is an increase in incidents of wild deer in collisions with cars, especially now during the rutting season. There seem to be more of them throughout the country. Drivers really are not expecting to be dealing with that kind of a hazard. They might see a sign but many drivers do not recognise the danger of it. There have been four incidents on the N22 east of Macroom recently, and another car was written off on the N22 just west of Baile Bhuirne. Drivers are not expecting that kind of a hazard. During the rutting season the wild deer have no interest in traffic; they have a different focus. The Road Safety Authority, RSA, has a focus on promoting road safety, it has the budgets, and it should be drawing the attention of drivers to this. Could the matter be raised with the RSA to promote road safety and to raise awareness of the hazard?

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important road safety issue. I will write to the RSA to communicate his views and concerns around the road safety aspect of this. It is complex with regard to the wider issues and how we deal with it. I will not go into the different methodologies and so on. I have been reading a lot of articles on what they do in other jurisdictions, but if we were to mention it here, it would only be treated in the wrong way. The Deputy has raised this as a road safety issue and the Deputy understands what is happening as he is on the ground. I will follow it up.