At least one thing about the "Kilmainham meetings" is a lot of this can be cleared up as well.What actually happened was a paranoia in the govt that Ireland could have become an illegal conduit for export of night vision equipment to sanctioned nations.

Hark back to that time with Iraq trying to aquire technology like the Super gun and getting the barrel parts made in England ! As well as a Northern Irish aircraft company going bust that was building private aircraft.Big deal ,so what? Fact was the Iraquis tried to buy this company via shell companies for its then revolutionary technology of 3D printing of carbon fibre aircraft fuselage components. Kind of handy if you want to make nose cones for missiles or rather large shells, that might fit in a supergun!

So at the time Ireland had no legislation governing NV,import,export or possesion and then this is where this liscensing came in.Cobbled into the Offensive weapons act 1991.It was a non thing really,as NV back then was [1] Huge in shape and weight. Think 2 foot of Wavin pipe with 3kgs of electronics and batteries stuck on top of your rifle[2] Very expensive to the point that few if anyone owned such a device here in Ireland. This was around the time the Soviet Union fell and became the Russian Federation,so also lots of weird& wonderful EX Warsaw pact and Soviet kit was also appearing on the international market. I

It was the then Dept of Commerce[?] that got cold feet about this and got onto the Dept of Justice about this hideous threat and posiblie affect on our sacred neutrality god,that then brought Messers Ray Burke and Willie O'Dea together to dream up this Offensive weapons act and tack this onto it.Basically they cogged the Brits homework on the same act that the UK had introduced around the same time covering the same offensive martial arts weapons,switchblades etc and threw in silencers ,crossbows,and NV for good measures.

Time has marched on and the hot stuff of the Gulf war era tech is now available on Temu or Ali express for around 150 euros.The fear of Ireland becoming a clearing house for illict military equipment is a nothing ,as things like ITAR and EU legislation on access to current mlitary equipment prevents it landing in the civillian market.

Nor is anything we have here on the civillian market even close to current military grade.The Taliban in Afghanistan,have better NV equipment than the most state of the art civillian equipment for sale here in Europe courtsey to all the stock Uncle Sam left there 6 years ago after that disaster.

Add onto the fact.NV/T is being incorporated along with ballistic calculators,lasers and whatnot into modern rifle scopes so it is becoming even harder to police,as it is already relying on us being law abiding and registering and liscensing these devices,and not simply buying one on Wish!

So in the future,this legislation will change,proably back to them becoming a Superintendent grant letter,at best,or a "liscenseable component" to your firearm.Or they do nothing and just carry on.

But AGS is pushing the idea thatit will have to be above a certain "lux" ? power to be legally liscenseable IOW the Chineseum,in its current stage wouldnt meet this threshold.However,their tech is jumping by leaps and bounds.Their glass is becoming almost on par with Jap Tasco scopes of the early 90s.So how long before they are snapping at the high end Western brands of glass or NV/T.All in all,it is a stupid and outdated bit of legislation that serves no practical purposes,and does nothing for public saftey and has been roundly voted by those present to be removed from the Firearms act. Even the deer orgs and NPWS are beginning to see that if culls and management is to be a thing, night hunting will have to come and with it NV/T.

To be Continued!

As far as I'm aware, and I could be wrong, technically you cant leave the scope on the rifle.

Weird one that, do they expect people to attach and remove the Day/Night scope each time? Surely they would be in the same Gun safe or equivalent anyways. Was it from talking to other people you think the requirement is there or is it written as requirements somewhere?

Yeah this is my understanding as well and where I thought I would go. I will start to enquire locally with Gardai as well.

It kinda goes back to the initial point of why does a scope have its own license once it became Day/Night scope. Should have been an add on to Rifle and kept that rifle IMO.

That is crazy and not at all practical.

Probably an open ended question but have they a date for when they will look at the licensing requirements again? or even a guidleline to when it would be looked at?

All we can do is live in hope that common sense will prevail. As what clivej got as requirements and many more as well is not workable. Like you couldn't even stop at a shop for a can of coke if you have the NV on you without bringing into the shop with you.

I have the exact same restrictions on mine.. Same chief super as Clive…

Rumours around here are that the scopes may be taken off the restricted list soon enough..

Move to Kildare, no such silly restrictions here, only restriction I have on either of my NV's is not to leave unattended.

While I was going to start a new thread/post, this is inline with what I would like to know.

I have a CZ .22lr rifle, which I use for target shooting at the moment but planned to add land permission. I had S and SE (sight electronic) on the licence until a recent renewal, when the replacement licence arrived it only had S (SE was missing). I made an enquiry from the FO and my understanding was they would look into it and resolve, the 2nd replacement arrived ALSO with only S, but SE still missing.

I was heading away so didn't have time to deal with it until I returned.

The rifle is an unrestricted rifle. I understood previously from this being discussed that if I acquire a NV or electronic sight I'd have to licence it as a restricted firearm, but has the SE category on licences gone??

I was basically told SE doesn't exist anymore on the firearm licence itself by the FO. My understanding was any rifle/firearm regardless of being restricted or unrestricted itself, still had to have SE on it to attach a "restricted" category NV sight (which itself has it's own restricted licence).

I was also previously under the impression that I could buy such an NV sight myself and take possession of it myself, and that it was only "restricted" when it was fitted to a rifle? If not that seems to limit a buyers options to purchase ie only from RFDs, ie how does it work if buying online? can I take delivery of a sight if purchased online? or does it have to be licenced as a restricted firearm before I take possession?

I'm wondering, if that's the case if I can buy in NI or the UK and have someone hold the item for me, either a business selling or family friend/relative? I don't think the NV type items have any such requirements there and I don't think Id be in breach of anything.

Someone did mention about getting such a light amplification/NV device engraved, Im wary of what I hear at times, and that seems like something that could be potentially damaging for any scope.

Lastly, Im not sure if all.scopes are marked with a serial number, if not how does anyone know what licence refers to what scope?

I'm not sure of the legal position regarding NV in the UK, but if it is, as you say, legal to possess them without licence, then you could get a family member/relative to purchase it for you and hold it.

Problem that arises then is when you want to licence it here as you will need an import licence to bring it over.

You could purchase from a business, but you will probably need to get them to transfer it to an Irish RFD and then pick it up from there.

As regards the serial number I suspect that all of the NV's will have a serial number(similar to a TV or a phone)