‘Vermin shoot’ in State-owned woods could not be stopped despite objections, documents say

A controversial “vermin shoot” in woodland owned by State forestry agency Coillte earlier this year “could not be prevented” amid concerns that hunters could gain “squatter’s rights” if a licence were not granted, internal documents reveal.

The annual shooting event at Jenkinstown Woods in Kilkenny was interrupted by animal rights protesters this year, and records show that Coillte received a large volume of objections and complaints about the shoot by email and phone.

The agency also received correspondence from the office of local Green Party TD and Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan after he had also been contacted by members of the public.

‘Hot potato’

Group communications director Aoife Donohoe instructed staff not to reply to messages relating to the vermin shoot “for the time being” and said, “we really need to try to mitigate this becoming a hot potato”.

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It was publicly advertised that the event would take place between 3pm and 6pm on two days only — December 27th, 2022 and January 8th, 2023. But documents released under Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) regulations show that the permit actually covered the entire period between these two dates.

Coillte did not address the question when asked whether any shooting took place outside of the advertised period, or whether any such shooting would have been permitted under the licence. It also had no information on the number or species of animals killed during the event, noting that these details “were not required under the licence”.

Cars damaged

In email correspondence involving a number of senior officials, operations director Eamonn Kenny explained that the Jenkinstown shoot was “one of those hunting rights things which we license purely to ensure they have sufficient insurance, but not one we could really prevent”.

Ms Donohoe also raised the question of whether hunters might have “squatter’s rights/a lack of insurance” if Coillte did not grant a licence for the shoot.

Mary Clifford, the agency’s estates manager, claimed there had been “damage done to hunt organisers’ cars in previous years”, noting that the event “can turn nasty”. However, she added that “we are not really in a position not to grant [a licence]”.

A Coillte spokeswoman said the Jenkinstown vermin shoot was “a longstanding annual event in existence for many years. Our policy is not to permit or license new hunting events on Coillte lands except where there are long-established rights or conventions which pre-date Coillte’s ownership of the land. As the landowner, we impose a set of conditions through the licence process to help ensure public safety in the specific area. For example, organisers are obliged to have signage in place in advance to inform the public of the location and duration of the event, and to have marshals in place.”

She added: “The event in question was confined to a specific area of the forest, which the licence holder closed to the public while the event was ongoing.”