Sir, - Your editorial concerning the NARGC High Court case re non-resident shooting licences (July 6th) addresses the conservation argument but misses the target by a mile.
The NARGC wants to see tourist shoot promoters properly licenced, with tax clearance certificates and with adequate proof of sustainable shooting grounds for specified species. They must be responsible for the behaviour of their tourist shooting guests and the gillies they employ to accompany the tourists. The State must issue licences to tourists to carry firearms and to hunt in accordance with the safeguards demanded by the Firearms and Wildlife Acts in the same way as those acts apply to Irish citizens.
The High Court has found that two Ministers were not discharging their statutory duties in this regard as they were not carrying out any checks on foreign applicants for firearms and hunting licences. In effect, the safety of Irish citizens was compromised as a result of a dereliction of duty by two ministers. Literally, tens of thousands of guns were illegally brought into this country over the years with the co-operation and participation of the State.
Meanwhile, the Ministers, their officials and the tourist interests involved have had absolutely nothing to say on that particular matter, concentrating instead on the affect of the court ruling on the pockets of the promoters. This is too serious a matter to be allowed pass without accountability. The Ministers and their officials cannot plead that they did not know. They were well briefed over the years by NARGC on the problem and where precisely the Acts were being breached by the State.
Most people who are not familiar with the technicalities of the judgment and the two Acts concerned will probably not realise that the recent emergency legislation brought forward by the Minister for Justice in a panic reaction to the High Court case relieves him and the Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands from having any statutory obligation to carry out any checks whatsoever on foreign applicants for firearms and hunting licences. In other words, the new legislation has been designed to legitimise the very procedures which the High Court struck down.
The £21 million tourist income which has been bandied about like snuff at a wake needs to be addressed. Based on the State's sworn evidence in the High Court, this figure would indicate that the 3,000 shooting visitors each spend £7,000 during their 3-5 day stay. The absurdity of this claim is obvious. The figure is taken from a UCD study commissioned by The Irish Field and Country sports Society for the total annual expenditure by Irish driven shoots plus the NARGC's 22,000 members. It does not examine the economic contribution of tourist shooting. It is grossly dishonest of the tourist interests and the State to use this study in this way. After all, the State knew exactly what the UCD report contained, because the Minister for Agriculture, Joe Walsh TD, was presented with a copy of the report on 17th June last.
Woodcock and snipe populations are at a very healthy level right across their range, including Ireland. NARGC bag returns show 60,000 snipe (less than three birds per member over the entire season) and 58,500 woodcock (2.5 birds per member) shot on average each year. This bag is generally accepted as being a tiny percentage of the total populations. Your figure of 8,000 pairs of snipe for Ireland is clearly grossly inaccurate. The NARGC's concern is that, while populations are currently very healthy, if uncontrolled, high pressure commercialised shooting by tourists is allowed to continue, that healthy status could change.
The NARGC's position is simply that uncontrolled, commercialised tourist shooting, as practised in Ireland, is contrary to the principle of wise and sustainable use of a natural resource. The Association's recent actions flow from that position. - Yours, etc., Desmond Crofton,
Director, National, Association of Regional Game Councils, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.