Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 5, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following:

“(2) Part 3and the Firearms Acts 1925 to 2009 may be cited as the Firearms Acts 1925 to 2022 and shall be construed together as one.”.

I want to acknowledge that this session was not intended for today and I appreciate the accommodation of this Bill. More generally, as the Chairman said, there is a heavy legislative workload coming through and it is great to be able to get through it as quickly as we can. I thank the committee for that and acknowledge it.

The first set of amendments I have tabled are related to various aspects of explosives and firearms legislation. Amendment No. 1 is a standard provision on the legal citation of the Firearms Act 1925, which is referred to as the principal Act. Amendment No. 16 simply updates the Long Title of the Bill to ensure it references the appropriate sections of the principal Act.

The substantive amendments are contained in amendment No. 2, which replaces the existing Part 3 of the Bill as published. This contains the proposed new sections 7 to 18, inclusive, of the Bill. The proposed new section 7 is simply a naming provision for the principal Act.

The proposed new section 8 provides for an exemption for the keeping by retailers of a small quantity, that is, up to 5 kg, of certain low hazard explosives in certain circumstances. This relates to the retail sale of certain low hazard firework, pyrotechnic and blank cartridge products. These are the only such products that can be sold to the public and include Christmas crackers, party poppers, hand-held party sparklers and cartridges for power tools, such as nail guns. The current practice is for distributors to import large consignments of these products at one time and to store them in a premises rather than with a local authority. The proposed change has been recommended by the Government inspector of explosives. For context, under current law, persons are allowed to keep up to 13.5 kg of these products for their own personal use. The provision requires the secure storage of these products in a manner that complies with health and safety.

The proposed new section 9 ensures that staff members of Forensic Science Ireland and civilian staff of the Garda Síochána are not committing a firearm offence when handling firearms and ammunition in the course of their duties, such as the secure storage of items for crime scenes.

The proposed new section 10 provides for a cap on the licensing of semi-automatic centrefire rifles. Deputies may be aware that a semi-automatic centrefire rifle is a rifle that does not need to be manually reloaded between shots and can use centrefire ammunition. There are two main types of ammunition, centrefire and rimfire. Centrefire is a more powerful type of ammunition that can travel further. What I am proposing in this section, on public safety grounds, is in line with a previous announcement by the then Minister on 18 September 2015. I would share the concerns of the Garda Síochána in regard to public safety. I also acknowledge the dedication and responsibility of the owners of legally held firearms in the State. I refer to this measure as a cap as opposed to an absolute ban, given it will allow persons who previously held a firearm certificate for these types of rifles before 18 September 2015 to continue to renew their certificates. I think this is an appropriate and balanced measure, given it is forward looking and not retrospective to the period before the then Minister's announcement of 2015.

The proposed new sections 11 to 14, inclusive, follow legal advice on the issue of dynamic shooting, which refers to any form of activity in which firearms are used to simulate combat. There is currently a prohibition on dynamic shooting in the principal Act and I am advised that this extends to the Garda Síochána, which would not be appropriate. Section 14 clarifies that the prohibition on dynamic shooting does not apply to a garda in the course of his or her duties. Sections 12, 13 and 14 ensure that the safety rules for authorisation of shooting ranges used by civilians will be separate from the rules for shooting ranges that are owned or operated by the Garda Síochána, which again may include dynamic shooting.

The proposed sections 15, 16 and 18 relate to legal requirements arising from the UN firearms protocol, which requires criminal offences for persons falsifying or illicitly obliterating the marking on firearms.

Section 15 provides for a clear offence in that regard.

Section 18 has been developed to comply with the protocol requirement that states take steps to prevent illicit firearms from falling into the wrong hands.

Section 16 provides for a consequential amendment and requires that where a court makes an order in respect of a person who has committed a firearms offence, such an order may have regard to regulations made by the Minister under section 18.

Finally, section 17 deals with the search powers of An Garda Síochána. The amendments are proposed in order to bring the law into alignment with the 2011 Supreme Court judgment in Damache v. DPP in respect of search warrants. The proposed amendment requires that, in the first instance, a search order is to be sought from the District Court, which may be valid for one week. The Garda may alternatively apply on urgency grounds to a Garda superintendent for a search warrant. The superintendent in question, however, must be independent of the investigation concerned, and the warrant is valid for only 48 hours.

I think that those are the longest speaking notes I have on the amendments.