Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. I have had a chance to read the submissions, so I have a good sense of the issues the witnesses are raising.

As an Oireachtas justice committee, we must try to find a balance between the different perspectives. As the witnesses know, representatives of the Garda Síochána and the Department attended the committee before Christmas and now we have the witnesses. The witnesses said they had engaged with the Department and the Garda. A significant number of refusals have been overturned in the courts, so clearly the perspective of the Judiciary is that the law is on the side of licensed firearms users such as the witnesses. I have a great deal of sympathy with the fact that we have law-abiding citizens here who are participating in a sport and who are not a threat. That is a major aspect of the grievance the witnesses have, given their professionalism and commitment to their sport. Large numbers of people throughout the State, in every county, are involved in this. Obviously the witnesses will be engaging with the Minister and the Department. Is there a middle ground to be found in terms of security and reassuring the public? A very good question was asked in one of the submissions - how many weapons is it proposed to ban? How many have been stolen? I have been trying, over several months, to get responses from the Department and the Garda Commissioner to parliamentary questions I have submitted so that the committee can get the most specific information possible.

My first question relates to security arrangements. It may have been dealt with in the first session. I apologise for not being present at that. What type of security, in terms of safes and so on, can be put in place to reassure the public? Second, from the information the witnesses have, how many of these weapons have been stolen? Mr. McCann suggests that maybe none has. That is a very important point - it is possible that not one of these weapons, which are apparently a threat to the public and which the witnesses use for their sport, have been stolen and have become a threat to the public.