WOLVES WERE ONCE common in Ireland, but the animal was hunted to extinction almost 250 years ago.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan yesterday called for the reintroduction of the animal to help rewild part of the countryside but that idea was rejected by Culture Minister Josepha Madigan who said the government has no plans to do so.

Ryan’s comments came after an episode of TheJournal.ie’s Ireland 2029 podcast in August examined the debate around the reintroduction of wolves into Ireland in detail.

• Almost 250 years after the last native wolf was killed, is Ireland ready for the debate about bringing them back?

Backers of the idea, say the presence of an apex predator can have a massively beneficial trickle-down effect on an ecosystem – as documented in Yellowstone in the US, where wolves were brought back in the mid-1990s.

But Madigan said yesterday that the reintroduction of a large predator which has been absent for 250 years “might undermine existing conservation programmes and would do considerable damage to farming”. 

So, today we want to know: Should Ireland reintroduce wolves?