THE GREEN Party has been criticised by public health specialist Prof Patrick Wall for its stance on banning stag hunting.
The associate professor of public health at UCD and former head of the Food Safety Authority said he was “a fan” of a lot of things the Green Party was trying to do, but the stance on stag hunting had upset many rural dwellers.
“Farmers are stewards of the countryside,” he said and added that he had many friends who were farmers and were engaged in rural pursuits.
“They actually share a lot of the green agenda, but by this they’ve actually got a lot of people upset.”
He said he supported hunting and people feared that the stag-hunting ban would be followed by bans on fox hunting, coursing, fishing, and the control of badgers to eradicate TB.
“Why I’m very sad about this is that it’s part of the programme for government, to ban the Ward Union Hunt. We have Nama, we’ve people losing their jobs,” he said.
Prof Wall referred to a Prime Timeprogramme on the work of carers and said it was shocking that parliamentary time and legislative time were being wasted talking about deer.
“Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s not a priority at the moment in the country.
“The welfare of deer and the welfare of frogs in the country can’t be more important than the welfare of people,” he said.
“My personal view is they probably will ban it eventually and they’ll ban lots of other things as well.
“But I don’t think it’s a priority for us at the moment and when you elect your leaders you expect them to prioritise the key issues to get the country out of the hole it’s in.”
He was speaking to Damien O'Reilly on RTÉ Radio One's Countrywideprogramme on Saturday.
A spokeswoman for the Green Party rejected the criticism and said the reference to the banning of stag hunting was just one element of the programme for government that had been negotiated with Fianna Fáil.
She said stag hunting had become an issue because of safety reasons, following a number of incidents in recent years.
Earlier this month, Minister for Sports Mary Hanafin pledged that hunting, coursing and shooting would not be banned by the Government.
Prof Wall, who is a a medical doctor and a veterinary surgeon, also said agri-food products such as milk and meat were being “vilified” and “demonised” yet these were staples in the food pyramid.
“The supermarket is full of obesogenic products that need to be given up before we cut back on the staples.”
He said not all fats were bad. “Milk isn’t bad for you . . . it’s basically about portion control and good food.
“We are eating too much processed food, with saturated fats, high in salt, high in sugars and taking too many calories and it’s having consequences on our health.”
