An Garda Síochána’s rural crime lead has expressed frustration with the leniency afforded to individuals found guilty of illegal hunting and trespassing on farmland.

Superintendent Michael Corbett said that farming organisations had flagged illegal hunting and trespassing as one of the biggest crime issues cropping up with their membership as he warned that these offences overlap with farm thefts.

“I have to say it really is a significant issue for rural and farming communities,” superintendent Corbett said at a meeting of the new European Rural Crime Network set up in a bid to coordinate action against rural lawbreaking in Maynooth last Wednesday.

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“We have had lot of issues with this and a number of farmers across the country have been badly assaulted by these individuals who come out with both lurchers and dogs hunting mainly hares.

“They are involved in digging out foxes and badger baiting and there is an organised crime element to it as well.

“There is a strong core relation between these individuals and farm thefts, especially farm machinery outside holdings.”

The senior Garda pointed towards the “over 160 prosecutions” secured against illegal hunting under wildlife and trespassing laws in recent years as evidence of some progress in combatting the issue, but expressed frustration with the leniency of sanctions against those found guilty of these offences.

“Unfortunately, some of the penalties that have been handed down would be on the lesser side of the fence,” Corbett said in referencing the €250-€500 penalties average, despite the €5,000 maximum fine laid out in the Wildlife Act for illegal hunting.

“The charge doesn’t match the crime and they are back out the following week.”

Farm thefts

The superintendent cited farm theft figures that included:

  • The theft of 839 cattle between 2022 and 2025, with another seven incidents involving 34 cattle reported as stolen in the first five months of this year.
  • The theft of 2,417 sheep over the same timeframe in an additional to 69 sheep reported stolen in 11 separate incidents in the first five months of 2026.
  • The theft of 317 quadbikes, 81 tractors and 805 pieces of farm machinery in the past four years.

    • “If it is not nailed down, if it is moveable, and if it carries a value then it is at risk of being stolen,” Corbett said.

    “We have livestock being stolen and staying in the south and stolen livestock travelling across the border up to Northern Ireland.

    “It is the same with farm machinery being stolen here, some of it is staying here.

    “A small group of farmers have no difficulty in receiving stolen farm machinery when they are getting it at a bargain price, but they are a minority and certainly some of our stolen farm machinery is going into the UK and further afield to eastern Europe.”

    The senior garda also stated that 31% of the farm vehicles stolen from farms were taken with the keys in the ignition.

    Other crime issues presenting themselves as challenging in rural areas are that of domestic abuse, drugs and drugs-related intimidation, burglaries and scammers posing as tradespersons canvassing householders for work.

    “Thankfully, over the past five or six years, Operation Thor has been very successful at targeting burglary gangs that leave urban centres for rural burglaries and our rural domestic burglaries have dropped dramatically in the last five years,” he said.