Do I need to plan my shooting in the Republic of Ireland?

SHOOTING IN IRELAND
David Frost
You don’t seriously expect life to be that easy, do you? Ireland is a member of the EU so you will need a European Firearms Pass before you travel.

This can be obtained free of charge from your local police but give them reasonable time in which to issue one.

You then must get a non-resident permit from the Irish police at www.garda.ie

It costs €40 and allow at least six weeks.

When you book your flight or ferry you will need to inform the carrier you are travelling with firearms.

Some ferry companies will not allow you to travel with both a firearm and ammunition for it.

It used to be a simple matter to take a dog to and from Ireland but Brussels didn’t like that so they’ve made it more complicated.

Your dog must now be chipped, have a rabies jab and be issued with a pet passport even though there’s no rabies in Ireland.

Technically the dog can’t travel until 21 days after the rabies jab but in practice there are normally no checks on pet passports for travellers between the UK and Ireland so you will probably get away with it.

No doubt the ferry will wish to charge you for the privilege of leaving the dog in your car during the crossing.

There’s some useful background information on shooting in Ireland on the FACE website www.face.eu/Documents/National.data.sheet/ireland_en.pdf