Animal rights campaigners are urging Minister for the Environment Dick Roche to refuse a Co Meath club a licence to hunt deer with packs of dogs.
Ward Union Staghounds is the only club of its kind in Ireland, or the United Kingdom, and boasts that former taoiseach Charles J Haughey rode out with them.
Activists claim stags are kept in captivity, injured during the hunt and the club is breaking the law by using hounds to chase almost tame animals.
The club is to apply for a new licence in the coming weeks.
Aideen Yourell, spokeswoman of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports (ICABS), said they will be writing to the Minister requesting it be turned down.
"It's an absolute scandal and a disgrace that it is allowed," she said. "We maintain it is illegal because they are hunting a domestic animal."
Between 1989 and 1997 the hunt operated without a licence. It was then monitored by Department of Agriculture Veterinary Inspector Kieran Kane who concluded aspects of it were inhumane. His report said the stags were terrified, exhausted and stressed and suggested the licence may be successfully challenged in the courts.
Despite this, the Ward Union has been given a licence each year since. Activists claim it is in contravention of the Wildlife Act which outlawed unnecessary cruelty to domestic and wild animals.
Under the Freedom of Information Act the ICABS found out an official in the Department of Environment objected to the licence in 2004. But the hunt was allowed to continue.
Oliver Russell, chairman of Ward Union, denied any cruelty to the deer and insisted they were not tame.
"The welfare of the deer is paramount. We reject any idea the deer are captive, and they are not injured, they are particularly well looked after," Mr Russell said.
Twice a week between November and March, two deer, with their antlers sawn off to avoid causing injury to the dogs are taken out in a cart to a hunt location. One deer is let loose for hounds and riders on horses to chase, the other is kept in the trailer in case the first is caught too quickly.
After being chased through ditches, hedges and fences many of the animals are injured, but fatalities are rare. The stags are returned to the herd to be used again in a hunt later in the season.
A similar club in Northern Ireland, the County Down Staghounds, was forced to stop after it was exposed in a BBC documentary.