"You could have 40 and 50 deer standing in your field in the morning grazing away," Galway Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) county chair Stephen Canavan said as an escalating deer population wreaks havoc for farmers around the lowlands of the Slieve Aughtys.

The deer population in Galway and parts of Clare has gone out of control and someone needs to "grab the nettle and take responsibility", Canavan said.

"There are parishes in Galway seeing deer that have never seen deer before.

"They are coming down on to farmland to feed in the morning and fences are broken, ground is trampled and silage ground is ruined.

"There's also a huge road safety issue there," Canavan said.

Galway meeting

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) attended a Galway IFA meeting on Thursday night 26 May in Woodford Hall on the issue.

It is understood that Coillte was invited, but did not attend.

Canavan said that the NPWS was "very forthcoming" during the meeting and is trying to help affected farmers by issuing more licenses to cull the deer.

"They've [NPWS] agreed to start issuing section 42s for out-of-season shooting," local farmer PJ Conroy said.

He added that the deer are driving cattle mad and trampling meadows, adding that fences would have to be eight feet high to stop them getting into grass.

This time of year, it's having a huge effect on farmers

"I was speaking to one of the deer shooters and he told me he stood in a field of 30 deer recently and not one of them ran away.

"This time of year, it's having a huge effect on farmers, especially this year because grass is so scarce," he said.

"Farmers are angry about it," he said.

Farmers were told at the meeting on Thursday to apply for licenses in groups in order to be able to cull more deer.

Up to 50 deer could be culled with a successful submission.

Shooters

Conroy also said that there is a reluctance to shoot deer now because there's practically no value to venison.

"There's no value in it anymore, restaurants don't want it. A bullet to shoot a deer costs €4.50," he said.

Population

There is an estimated 60% to 70% increase in the deer population in the last two years, Bertie Roche from Galway IFA said.

"They [shooters] counted 270 deer one night within a 5km radius", adding that they're not coming in small numbers anymore.