Control of Firearms Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-12 ============================================================ Niall Collins (FF), Limerick County I thank Senator Brady for raising this important issue. The reform of the firearms licensing system has been under consideration for a number of years and extensive consultation has been undertaken. An Garda Síochána is the competent authority for licensing and possession of firearms within the State. The Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration is the competent authority for maintenance of the register of firearms dealers and the import and export within the European Union of firearms and ammunition. The Department of justice holds meetings with individual firearms organisations on request and engages with various firearms stakeholders, including representative firearms organisations, in various ways. An Garda Síochána also meets with firearms stakeholder organisations in respect of relevant matters and officials from the Department also liaise regularly with the firearms policy unit of An Garda Síochána on firearms-related matters. In 2025, the Department organised a series of engagements with firearms stakeholders in Wicklow, Limerick, Carrick-on-Shannon and Mullingar. I and officials from my Department have also met with representative organisations, including the Target Shooting Ireland Olympic shooters and the National Association of Regional Game Councils, NARGC. In these and other engagements, I have confirmed my support for more regular and structured engagement between policymakers and firearms users, which has taken place since the previous meeting of the firearms consultative panel in 2019. I can advise that ongoing engagement has continued with firearms stakeholders. The most recent engagement took place on 28 April 2026, when more than 20 representatives of the firearms community and firearms stakeholder organisations attended the meeting with my officials. This was the fourth in a series of meetings that have taken place since 18 September 2025. During this series of meetings, a multitude of items across the firearms sector has been discussed. This series of meetings is due to continue throughout the year. Many stakeholders who attended have expressed positive feedback to Department officials on the conduct and outcome of the meetings. Certain members have expressed their gratitude in regard to the productivity of the meetings. They were encouraged by the Department's efforts to maintain momentum in the process. A consultation phase is due to take place in the coming months with firearms representative organisations with regard to the findings of the recent engagements. The objective of these meetings is to provide a mechanism for ongoing engagement with firearms stakeholders from a broad range of areas within the firearms community, ensuring their valuable insights in specific areas of firearms can be considered in any future policy and legislative changes that may arise. The stakeholders attending these meetings include several of the representative organisations, experts in technical areas of firearms and members of An Garda Síochána's firearms policy unit. Several of the stakeholders were also members of the previous firearms consultative panel. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-12/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:55+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-12