John McGuinness
Question:174. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 429 of 26 March and 13 June 2013, if the report from the Commissioner is now available. [44092/13]
View answerThursday, 17 October 2013
Questions (174)
Written answers
I refer the Deputy to my reply by letter to Parliamentary Question Number 429 of 26 March, 2013. This reply, as set out in italics beneath, issued from my Office on 11 July, and was also a follow up reply to Question Number 117 of 13 June.
"I am writing to you further to the Parliamentary Question number 14875/13 you put down for answer on Tuesday, 26 March, in connection with the costs of recent judicial reviews in the firearms licensing area.
I understand that 22 separate Bills of Costs have, so far, been served on the Chief State Solicitor. These refer to some of the adjourned firearms judicial reviews as part of the agreement reached between the parties on 31 January 2012. No Bills of Costs have yet been received regarding the 'test cases'. I understand that in the event of failure of the CSSO's Costs Section to reach agreement on the costs of the 22 Bills of Costs submitted then it will be referred to a Taxing Master for adjudication. It is not possible to give more precise information at this stage.
I am also informed that the issue of costs being awarded in respect of District Court Appeals was the subject of a High Court judgment by Judge Peart on the 1st of May, 2013 in the case Hayes - V- Chief Superintendent Sheahan. In summary, the Judge found that existing court rules do not give a District Court Judge jurisdiction to award costs to an applicant, in the absence of any statutory power to award costs on appeal under Section 15A of the Firearms Acts.
In relation to the request for information for the total estimated cost of all Gardaí time in processing and providing backup to the legal actions, this is not readily available and the Garda Commissioner informs me that it would require a disproportionate amount of Garda time and resources to compile same.
While I have stated that the collapse of the test cases was because of issues associated with record keeping in relation to some applications it is worth noting that the Chief Superintendent is, in law, the persona designata and it is not for me to second guess his or her decision or somehow to assume that because legals costs were incurred that the wrong decision was made. I would not like it to deflect from the issue of the dangers presented by handguns and I am still considering a report submitted to me by the Garda Commissioner in this regard".