Rónán Mullen (Independent)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht an méid atá ráite aige. Rinne mé machnamh ar an argóint de réir mar a bhí sí á chur in iúl dúinn. Beidh mé ag brú na ceiste seo chun vótála. Creidim go bhfuil fíor-bhotún á dhéanamh ag an Rialtas anseo. Níl an t-idirdhealú ceart idir an sórt gníomhaíocht le gunnaí gur chóir a bheith coiriúil agus an sórt gníomhaíocht nár chóir a bheith coiriúil - atá spórtiúil agus measúil - á dhéanamh ag an Rialtas. When I listened to the Minister of State, I was reminded of the lines of Shakespeare:

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

His argument was a reversal of the Shakespearean proposition that whereas a name might change, the designated thing will remain the same. The opposite is the case here - the name is staying the same, but wild confusion is reigning in the minds of the Minister and his officials about what the name designates or connotes. I contend that the Minister's core mistake - he is hitting the innocent as well as the guilty, the undeserving as well as the deserving - results from his fixation on a certain idea of what practical shooting involves. He should be defining the kind of activity he wants to prohibit. I refer to any shooting activity that involves combat techniques or human targets, for example. All the activities about which he claims to be concerned could quite easily be prohibited if they were to be named in this legislation. Instead, the Minister has bought in a certain idea of what the word "practical" means in the context of practical shooting. He is proposing, in a completely sloppy way, to criminalise quite legitimate activities. There is an onus on the Minister to show beyond any doubt that the activity connoted by "practical shooting" is always undesirable. We have put the issue in doubt. As a result, this legislation should not be unnecessarily rushed. We need to hear more about the matter. There is something gnostic about the manner in which we are being told that the Minister has been in touch with the Garda authorities, who have said they know things we do not know.