A public consultation on the impact of the deer population has heard how the majority of people believe deer culling is needed.
Over 80% of the 1,500 people surveyed claim the national deer herd is damaging biodiversity.
There's currently no census of deer in Ireland, but it's estimated 55 thousand were shot dead last year.
However, Damien Hannigan from the Irish Deer Commission says without a census, it's difficult to know if we're culling too few or too many:
"We're culling substantial numbers of deer each year, and in the absence of a census, it's really hard to say if we are culling too many deer. Are we not culling enough? But the realities are, deer exist in quite remote habitats such as our mountains and forests, and to count their numbers is quite a difficult task and quite a considerable task".
