Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for attending and I apologise for missing their opening statements. I was in the Dáil contributing to the debate there. I have read all of the submissions and thank the representative organisations for taking the time to send those to the committee. Having listened to the various questions and responses, the main question I have is simple. What is the bottom line? What is the view of the witnesses on why these proposals are being put in place? Related to that, why do the witnesses think that the Garda Síochána is taking so long to process applications from existing firearms licenceholders? In certain instances, those licences are being refused, as several individuals who visited my constituency office have testified in the past eight to ten weeks, even though there has been no change in circumstances and the individuals are complying with the statutory instrument referred to. The individuals in question are trained to a reasonable standard and are, by and large, fine upstanding citizens who happen to have a sporting interest in firearms.