National deer management programme picks up speed in Leitrim
The programme was brought into effect last year
Efforts to bring landowners and hunters together in Leitrim to manage the county's deer problem are gathering pace a year after a new national programme was introduced, although some hunters remain wary.
The national deer management programme was established in response to concerns about rising deer numbers and their effects on farmland, forestry, biodiversity and road safety.
FRS Deer Management was hired last year to manage its rollout, with the programme aiming to help hunters and landowners better coordinate and record data on deer culling, illegal hunting activity, damage and movement patterns.
A total of 1,021 deer were recorded as shot in Leitrim in 2025, according to National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) figures, up from around 440 the previous year.
The 2026 figures are not yet available, so it is unclear how the programme has affected the number of deer shot in Leitrim this year.
The company stresses that the programme is about better managing deer populations at local level rather than getting more deer killed.
“We’re trying to change the mindset here,” said Michael Keegan, programme manager at FFRs Deer Management, who is co-ordinating the national programme.
“There hasn’t ever really been a tradition of deer management in this country.
“So it’s going to be a long, slow process.”
The programme encourages landowners to form deer management groups and communicate more closely with hunters, sharing information on deer sightings and damage through an app rather than simply permitting individual hunters to shoot on their land.
“We want to move away from that and to a more hands-on approach where we actually know as landowners what is going on, how many deer are being shot, how many deer are there, where they are and what damage they’re doing.
“It’s a kind of holistic approach as opposed to just people working on their own in silos.”
The country has been divided into 15 Deer Management Units (DMUs), with co-ordinators working to establish groups bringing together landowners and local hunters. There are currently four groups set up in Leitrim.
But not all hunters are convinced by the new approach.
A North Leitrim hunter who spoke to the Leitrim Observer said there was concern about companies being paid to become involved in deer management.
The hunter also said they felt “hurt” that people hunting in areas for many years were now seeing other hunters gaining access to those areas through the project.
Daniel O’Flatherty, program manager for Leitrim and Roscommon and a Boyle-based hunter himself, said existing local hunters were best placed to manage deer because of their knowledge of the area and experience in the field.
“Ultimately, the best possible people to carry out a deer management program are the hunters that are already there because they know the ground the best,” he said.
“They have a passion in the sort of field craft that’s required to harvest deer. So they’re the best ones to do it.”
“We’re just trying to get the hunters on board so that they start using the app and record their harvest and their deer sightings, and that to try to paint a better picture for us as to what’s actually going on.”
O’Flatherty has spent the last year informing the public about the programme, talking to hunters and landowners and holding an information meeting in Leitrim Organic Farms.
He has had early successes but stresses that he hopes more landowners will get involved.
“The information I’d like to get out to landowners is that there is a program here to help and that they just need to reach out to us.”