The decision by the National Association of Regional Game Councils (NARGC) to take legal action against the Government to prevent the granting of hunting permits to foreign shooters reflects the parlous state of wild gamebird stocks in this country. Having won its recent case on technical grounds in the courts, the association has seen its victory turn to ashes as the Government rushed through new legislation at the end of last week to re-establish the status quo. As a result, the unregulated killing of wild birds by both domestic and foreign shooters will continue and stocks can be expected to decline.
There is no doubt the Government's response has been informed by financial and commercial considerations. The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, conceded as much when he said a failure to act would have left the Government vulnerable to litigation by companies in the overseas shooting-tourism business that suffered losses. In his defence, Mr O'Donoghue announced the establishment of an inter-departmental committee to consider the implications of the court judgment and the Government's response to it, before the legislation falls due to be renewed by Ministerial Order next year.
It is a difficult and complicated area. The Minister for Justice is charged with granting firearms licences to foreign nationals. The Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, has responsibility for hunting licences under the Wildlife Acts. Some 25 Irish-based tourist-shooting companies cater for about 4,000 visitors and the niche market is worth an estimated £21 million annually. That brings the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr McDaid, into the picture. In addition, the IFA president, Mr Tom Parlon, has supported the organised shooting of pigeons, rooks and other birds by visitors in order to protect grain and other tillage crops, such as peas, from depredation by the birds.
One of the arguments made by the NARGC in opposing the granting of licences to foreign shooters is that stock levels of snipe and woodcock in particular, (species which are not reared commercially for shooting purposes) are dangerously low. There is no gainsaying that point. There are an estimated 8,000 pairs of snipe in this State, and the numbers are falling rapidly as their habitat is damaged by drainage and intensive farming. The numbers of woodcock remaining are less than half of that. By contrast, the NARGC represents 22,000 members in 875 gun clubs, who are objecting to the licensing of 4,000 outside shooters.
Confining the killing of these and other species, such as grouse, to domestic hunters alone does not address the long-term issue of conservation and wildlife protection. The time when the tourist industry was in such straitened circumstances that it could not afford to turn away foreign shooters has also gone. In looking to the future, the Government should become much more selective in its licensing systems.