The High Court yesterday ruled that the procedures adopted by two Government Ministers in allocating shooting licences and hunting permits to foreign sports people are in breach of the 1925 Firearms Act and the 1976 Wildlife Act.
In a reserved judgment, Mr Justice Quirke found in favour of the National Association of Regional Game Councils, which represents 22,000 members in 875 gun clubs, in its challenge to a decision by the Minister for Justice to issue gun licences to foreign shooters coming to Ireland without checking into their backgrounds.
He found the procedures adopted in allocating licences to non-resident sports people were ineffective and insufficient for the Minister to discharge adequately the obligations imposed on him by the 1925 Firearms Act.
He found procedures adopted by the Minister for the Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands for the allocation of hunting permits to foreign shooters did not conform with her obligations under the 1976 Wildlife Act.
During a three-day hearing last month Ms Mary Finlay SC, for the NARGC, said the association was concerned about what it regarded as the excessive commercial exploitation of migratory game species.
It sought an order preventing the Minister for Justice from granting licences to foreign sports people without making adequate inquiries, as he was obliged to do under the 1925 Firearms Act.
It sought an order preventing the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands from issuing hunting permits to non-resident shooters under the 1976 Wildlife Act without making adequate inquiries.
Mr Gerard Hogan SC, for both Ministers, acknowledged that in the period up to June 1996 the system for granting such licences was not in accordance with the legislation.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Quirke said that on the evidence of the State the Minister was obliged to check gun licence applicants' names against reports submitted by certain Garda superintendents containing the names of non-residents convicted of certain types of crimes as set out in the Act. These reports identified only non-residents convicted of crimes within the preceding three months. No other investigation or inquiry was undertaken by the Minister in respect of non-resident applicants for gun licences. It was clear the Minister had not discharged his obligations under the Act.
The judge said the Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, before granting a hunting licence under the 1976 Wildlife Act, must have "due regard" to the suitability of non-resident applicants for a hunting licence.
He said the NARGC was entitled to certain declarations and other forms of relief. He fixed July 10th to decide the form of those reliefs. In the meantime his judgment stood.
A spokesman for the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Mr McDaid, said he would be "studying the implications of the judgement" with the two departments which oversee the granting of hunting licences and firearm certificates.