A deer management group was set up over 12 months ago. Everyone at this stage agrees a deer cull is absolutely essential. There are three main reasons for it, namely, there is a welfare issue as the natural habitats of the deer are not able to feed them anymore due to the very large numbers of deer; there is a serious road safety issue in that the number of car crashes in rural areas because of deer is increasing by the day; and there is a risk to the health of the bovine herd due to the spread of bovine tuberculosis. How much resources are going to be allocated to this essential cull and when will it commence?

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Cahill as an gceist seo a ardú. First, the deer management report, which was led by Mr. Teddy Cashman, was a really excellent piece of work. The Minister, Deputy Charlie McConalogue, and I have been working on this. We have implemented some of the short-term measures already. I am reaching out to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, to meet to discuss this further to look at the short-term, medium-term and long-term objectives of it. It is resource intensive. It will require a significant amount of resources across the State to try to bring down the number of deer across the country to manageable levels for woodland management, road safety and sustainable agriculture.