Mr. Mark Dennehy:

The nearest example would probably be the UK where it is a police function. Our system is very different from anywhere else in the world. We do not license the individual but rather the firearm, which has some interesting side effects. For example, we can tell members how many firearms are licensed in Ireland today. If they ask me how many people have a firearm or who are the licensed owners, I cannot tell them that. I do not think I have ever seen that figure presented to the Dáil. The answer to the simple question of many people have guns is that no one knows. We can have people who have two or three licences and we can have a firearm which is licensed to two or three people. One would have to audit all the data and it would be a monumental task to come up with that figure, simply because of the way the system is structured. In terms of trying to compare ourselves to other jurisdictions, there are fundamental differences as to how we do things here which make simple comparisons almost impossible.