The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an appeal by the State and Garda authorities against the High Court's striking down of a Garda directive requiring applicants for gun licences to store the weapons in locked firearms' cabinets.
The directive, issued two years ago, had been opposed by the National Association of Regional Game Councils, representing 885 gun clubs throughout the State.
It was the last of a series of circulars from Garda headquarters relating to the holding of firearms. These were prompted by a growing concern about larcenies of firearms from private premises and cars.
Last year, the High Court held that the 2000 directive was void. The Supreme Court yesterday upheld that decision.
The directive had been issued to each officer, inspector and Garda station, and required that certain security arrangements be in place before firearms certificates were issued.
Holders of firearms were required to keep them in a properly-constructed and locked firearms' cabinet. The keys of the non-wood cabinet had to be stored separately.
There were more stringent requirements relating to rifles of more than .22 calibre.
Giving the unanimous Supreme Court decision, the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Keane, said that Section 3 of the Firearms Act of 1925 provided for a Garda superintendent of a district to grant a firearms certificate if certain conditions were met. The superintendent also had power to revoke a certificate.
Under the 1925 Act, the superintendent was a designated person who had vested in him a discretion which he could not abdicate to anyone else.
Mr Justice Keane said that the renewal of a firearms certificate was dealt with under a 1964 Firearms Act. Renewal could be by a garda, not below the rank of sergeant, if authorised by a district superintendent. The State had claimed that the power to regulate possession of firearms could be exercised at the discretion of superintendents. The gun clubs contended that the superintendent was the designated person and could not exercise discretion by acting on instructions of any other party, including the Garda Commissioner, or by adopting a rigid policy not expressly authorised by legislation.
Mr Justice Keane said he was satisfied that a superintendent who imposed a precondition (that a gun safe be installed) in relation to all applications for the granting or renewal of firearms certificates would be acting beyond the powers granted to him under the Firearms Acts.