A high Court judge yesterday asked if the Minister for Justice was happy to have tourist shooters using guns in the State on foot of licences granted under procedures declared by the court to be invalid.
Mr Justice Quirke put the question to counsel for the Minister after the National Association of Regional Games Councils (NARGC) complained that some 3,000 people who held such licences had not yet been told by the Minister they had been granted under invalid procedures.
Mr Brian Cregan, for the NARGC, said the Minister should write to all holders of such licences and inform them of the situation in the light of the High Court's order on the matter on July 10th. Mr Cregan claimed the Minister appeared to be disregarding the judgment and order of the High Court. No action had been taken regarding firearms certificates issued before July 10th, although these run for a one-year period.
Mr Gerard Hogan SC, for the Minister, said the procedures under which the licences were granted had been declared invalid but the NARGC had not sought to quash the licences in the recent proceedings related to the matter.
He argued that there was no procedure under which the Minister could recall the licences as they now belonged to the holders. There was also no procedure under which the Minister could be compelled to write to the licensees.
The licences were not invalid until quashed by the High Court, counsel said. Notice must be given to the holder concerned. The Minister could not quash them. Mr Justice Quirke said the Minister could recall all the licence-holders and ask them to produce the licences and see if they could be quashed. The Minister could ask for them to be brought before the High Court.
Mr Hogan said that would be very onerous on the Minister.
The judge asked if counsel was saying the Minister believed it was OK to let people use firearms on foot of authorisations declared by the High Court to be invalid. Mr Hogan said the certificates had been granted in good faith by the Minister before the High Court decision. They could be quashed only if the licence-holders were a party to proceedings and they were not.
After legal argument between Mr Cregan and Mr Hogan, the judge said he would resume dealing with the matter tomorrow. The matter arose following the judge's order of July 10th setting out the conditions under which gun licences may be issued to tourist shooters.
Mr Justice Quirke issued the order to give effect to his judgment in favour of the NARGC against the Ministers for Justice and for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands.
On June 12th the judge found that the procedures adopted in deciding whether to grant gun licences to non-resident sports people coming into Ireland were ineffective and insufficient for the Minister for Justice to discharge adequately the obligations imposed on him by the 1925 Firearms Act.
The judge also found that the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands carried out no investigation in relation to an application for a hunting licence. Since the judgment, emergency legislation to deal with the situation has been rushed through both Houses of the Oireachtas.
On July 10th, Mr Justice Quirke issued an order declaring that before the issue of a gun certificate to non-resident tourist shooters, the Minister for Justice is obliged to satisfy himself that the applicant is the holder of a current firearms licence.
The Minister must also be satisfied the applicant has good reason for acquiring the firearm for which the certificate is being applied for, can be allowed have a gun without a danger to public safety and is not barred from holding a certificate under Section 8 of the Firearms Act.
