Mr. Nicholas Flood:

I thank the committee for giving me the opportunity to make a presentation on the proposed Bill that has been put forward. It was very disturbing to read the proposal as made by An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice and Equality.

To give a little background of my experience in shooting sports, I have been honoured to represent Ireland in silhouette target shooting professionally for seven years. I was a carded athlete on the Irish Sports Council PACE carding scheme and had gained the rating of world class II athlete. I trained seven days a week, sometimes three times a day. I would have expended approximately 25,000 rounds - quite a significant amount - down range per year. I was lucky in that during my career I won the Irish national championships seven times, eight European championship titles and gold medals, a bronze medal at the 2004 world championships and placed in the top three in the US national championships. In my final year - I eventually retired as a result of a couple of injuries I had suffered - I won the US championship title, beating the reigning world champion. In the same year I won the German open championships and the Irish national championships. I decided that it was a really good year to stop and move on to something else.

When I read the draft of the proposed Bill, I was really insulted by its contents.

This vein has been followed for a number of years, namely, the attachment of crime and criminality to sporting firearms and those involved in shooting sports. From my experience of meeting people in Ireland and abroad, it is the furthest thing from the truth. I was disturbed. The working group might have benefited greatly from the inclusion of interested parties as a whole in forming its proposals. We should take the opportunity to consider the proposals, not in their form as suggested, but with changes that take into account the reality of what might be needed today and in the future. I thank the committee for taking the time to listen.