Mr. Declan Keogh:

I thank the Chairman and members of the joint committee for affording Harbour House Sports Club the opportunity to address the committee. I am chief range safety officer and firearms instructor at Harbour House Sports Club, which is a sporting amenity based in Athy, County Kildare. We cater for the sporting needs of the local community and a wider community of target shooting members by providing rifle and pistol facilities. Harbour House Sports Club was formed in 2006. Our ranges have been inspected by the Department of Justice and Equality appointed range inspector and are approved for the purpose of target shooting with pistols and rifles.

Harbour House has been authorised by the local Garda superintendent to operate as a target rifle and pistol club. The club is operated to statutory requirements as dictated by the current firearms legislation. Conditions have been attached to the operation of the club and range by the authorising letter from the Garda superintendent, copies of which were supplied to the committee. Given such scrutiny and our compliance with the strict regulations laid down by the 2006 amendments to the Firearms Acts and associated statutory instruments, the committee might be of a mind to acknowledge that we are a highly regulated sport and that the substantial thrust of such regulation is in the interest of public safety.

Harbour House has just over 300 members. We cater for male and female members as well as individuals with disabilities. Target shooting sports are one of the sports in which men and women, disabled and able bodied, can compete equally side by side. Some 188 pistols are currently licensed to our members. Harbour House is passionate about the safe use of firearms. Since we opened in 2006, we have trained 72 members to an internationally recognised level as certified range safety officers. Target shooting in its various forms is practised every week of the year, and we cater for rifle and pistol shooting. Our membership is very safety conscious, with members having to undergo a mandatory course in the safe handling of firearms in the first month of membership. As a sporting amenity with more than 300 members, we provide a valuable contribution to the local and wider community. With our membership possessing 188 licensed pistols, the proposed changes to the legislation would have a devastating impact on our club. Volunteerism and community are the fundamental values on which the club is run. The membership of the Harbour House would certainly drop below the critical level required to sustain the viability of the club and range. The livelihoods of our proprietors would be ruined. Men and women who have suffered the long years of austerity comforted by the knowledge that they could pursue their sport in peace will feel a deep disappointment in a Government which they have supported but which now oversees the removal of their sporting pastime while avoiding any liability for compensation. Criminal activity would be unimpeded by any such move and would likely continue apace, as was the experience in the UK when short firearms were banned in that jurisdiction.

In our nearest neighbour, Northern Ireland, in excess of 13,935 handguns are licensed to private citizens. Northern Ireland has carried out several reviews of its legislation and has not made any change to lawful firearms ownership or access. In 1998, in the aftermath of the tragedy in Dunblane, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mo Mowlam, with a full understanding of Lord Cullen's report, stated: "After much thought, I am not persuaded of the need to prohibit the possession and use of target handguns in Northern Ireland." To this day, target handgun shooting is alive and well in Northern Ireland. Given that pistols have been licensed in this State since 2004 and have been used safely since then, we ask for evidence that would validate the claim by An Garda Síochána that our sport is a danger to public safety.Removing our ability to practise this sport would benefit the economy of Northern Ireland because the prosperity related to shooting sports will move there.

In 2006, amendments to the firearms legislation introduced standards for the development and operation of shooting ranges. Legislators saw fit to provide for the construction of rifle and pistol ranges with the clear intention of facilitating rifle and pistol target shooting while meeting the primary objective of ensuring public safety. The investment in the range facilities at Harbour House to comply with the legislation has amounted to more than €400,000. The review conducted by the Garda and the Department of Justice and Equality makes a mockery of the construction standards, as well as the regulation and certification of the ranges by departmentally appointed range inspectors and, in particular, the highly regulated conditions set out by the Garda for the operation of the club and ranges at Harbour House. The legislative amendments of 2006 recognised the legitimacy of pistol shooting.

Harbour House has not recorded any breach of the firearms legislation by its members in the storage, transport or use of firearms for target shooting. Our ranges have not been cited for any breach in the conditions as laid down by the local Garda superintendent. Ranges operate to the standards dictated by legislation but now we find our sport under attack from the Garda through speculation and scaremongering about the potential for a limited number of firearms and, by extension, their owners to commit an atrocity. Not one shred of evidence has been recorded by the Garda of any malpractice by Harbour House or indeed any other authorised sports club in the State. Harbour House urges the members of the joint committee to see through this report because it carries no substance, provides no evidence as to the real likelihood of an atrocity being perpetrated by a lawfully licensed firearms holder, and to initiate an investigation into the maladministration of the firearms legislation by the Garda, which has resulted in 650 District Court cases and nearly 200 judicial review proceedings. It is the considered view of members of Harbour House Sports Club that the recommendations are aimed at nothing other than legitimising the maladministration of the firearms legislation and will give unreasonable power to the Garda with respect to firearms licensing. The effect of such changes would be far-reaching but no substantial evidence as to their need has been offered in the report.

The Minister for Justice and Equality was reported in the Sunday Independentas stating that politics is the place where, through one's actions, one can change people's lives for the better. We believe the recommendations in this report would not constitute a change for the better. With the Minister's thoughts in mind, I urge the committee to determine what evidence, if any, exists with respect to the misuse of the firearms which the Garda wants to remove from civilian ownership and what proof has been offered that the removal of such firearms would have any effect other than the negative impact on sports people's lives. I am happy to answer any questions that members may wish to raise regarding the submission of Harbour House Sporting Club.