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The Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence has signed a Statutory Instrument entitled Firearms (Authorisation of Rifle or Pistol Shooting Ranges) Regulations 2011.  Please note that the signed document will shortly be available from Government Publications Office and will also appear on http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ in the near future. 

The purpose of this regulation is to give effect to measures introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2006 for the authorisation of rifle and pistol shooting ranges.

The regulations draw a distinction between the certification of a shooting range and the authorisation of a shooting range.  The former is supplied by the Firearms Range Inspector in the Department of Justice and Equality and is essentially related to the safe design, construction and maintenance of the range; whilst the latter is supplied by the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána. 

A range owner or operator must have a firearms range certificate before applying for a range authorisation.  However, acquisition of the firearms range certificate does not guarantee the acquisition of a range authorisation.  To view the regulations click here 

There is no charge levied for the firearms range certificate.  The application for a range authorisation must be accompanied by a fee (currently €1,000).