Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

With effect from 1 November 2006, there has been a mandatory minimum sentence of between five and ten years under the Criminal Justice Act 2006 for certain firearms offences, including possession of a firearm in suspicious circumstances, possession of a firearm with criminal intent, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, possession of a firearm while hijacking a vehicle and the use or production of a firearm to resist arrest. There are very strict penalties for such offences. I will certainly raise the issue indicated by the Deputy with the corresponding Minister, the Minister for the Interior, in the Czech Republic. It was a tradition in many of the former Warsaw Pact countries to have a substantial number of citizens highly trained in the use of arms. That core and body of people do not need any fresh training.

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