Reintroducing wolves into Ireland could help improve road safety by controlling the deer population, an environmentalist has argued. 

The Road Safety Authority has noted that the number of deer related collisions has risen in recent years, with 41 casualty collisions involving deer recorded between 2019 and 2025. 

It was also informed of 1,382 collisions with deer in which there was no injury. 

In recent years, tens of thousands of deer have been culled on an annual basis, in a bid to control their numbers. 

However, on The Claire Byrne Show, Wild Ireland conservation park founder Killian McLaughlin questioned a cull-led approach to managing the deer population. 

“I remember 55,000 deer were killed [in 2022],” he said. 

“That has increased, believe it or not, to 78,000 deer killed in 2023. 

“Go right back to when the cull started in 1995, there were 5,000 deer culled. 

“So, something's telling me culling's not the answer here.”

A red deer at Killarney National Park in County Kerry. Picture by: Robertharding / Alamy.

Mr McLaughlin continued that he believes “nature can balance itself”, but that Ireland currently lacks an apex predator that preys on deer and controls their population. 

Both bears and wolves were driven to extinction in Ireland, but now enjoy protected status in European Union countries where they have survived. 

“We have been trying to control nature for years, not just in Ireland, but across the globe and it has been totally and utterly a disaster,” Mr McLaughlin said. 

“It doesn't necessarily have to be wolves; there are lynxes there as well, which they're talking about reintroducing into Scotland because they've realised the cull doesn't work either. 

“So, now they're looking at rebalancing the ecosystem.”

Wolves in Bavaria. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Also on the programme, independent Donegal Councillor Michael McClafferty said he “wouldn't feel comfortable” about the prospect of wolves returning to Ireland. 

“Your lynx, your cougar, your wolf, your bear, whatever, coming into danger, some child or whatever - this [could be] the kind of situation going on,” he said. 

“Have the wolves not killed people, or lynx possibly, in other countries?”

Mr McLaughlin responded that wolves do not attack people and said collisions involving deer pose a bigger threat to people’s safety. 

“Michael's talking about human safety on the roads and everything else,” he said. 

“Let's look at what's actually happening here; people are being injured in cars - they're not being injured by wolves.”

Main image: A split of wolves and a Garda at a road traffic crash. Pictures by: Alamy and RollingNews.ie.