Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State who is representing the Minister for Justice and Equality and acknowledge that this is not an area within his brief. Having said that, I am reassured to some extent that at least it is on the record now that the Minister will meet the key stakeholders, including the organisations I mentioned, which is a significant step forward. Correspondence with the Minister as recently as August was not replied to other than by way of an acknowledgement of receipt. It was not until phone calls were made in the last week to ten days that the Minister has conceded on this point. At least it has now been put on the record.

My understanding is that the deletion of annex F means the entire guidelines are not being activated, which could have a serious impact in terms of firearms activity. The formal notification of An Garda Síochána this month that all applications shall be considered under the current legislation is a vital and important step forward given the allegations I raised in my earlier submission whereby they were being turned down on the basis that legislation was imminent. That was plainly an untruth. The Minister of State made the point that negative decisions on a licence application constitute a refusal which may be appealed to the District Court. It will be interesting to see the reasons for refusals of handgun licences.

We are talking here about sporting enthusiasts not criminal elements and that is the difficulty the sporting organisations are feeling and why they consider certain terminology offensive. They are the most compliant people in our society and they are acutely aware of their responsibilities given that they have to handle a wide variety of potentially lethal weapons. The suggestion that the review is being introduced on foot of criminal reasons is considered by the sporting organisations as an attack on them. I hope the Minister will have the opportunity to dissuade them from that point of view when she meets them.