Hunting club gets permission to challenge minister

A HUNTING club yesterday obtained High Court permission to challenge a decision by Environment Minister John Gormley to put restrictions on its licence to hunt deer, which it says amounts to an effective ban.

The Ward Union Hunt Club chairman Oliver Russell claims the Green Party’s minister’s decision is “purely based on his political philosophy that hunting should be prohibited”.

The minister is contriving new conditions in the hunting licence “to give the appearance of permitting hunting whilst in reality banning it”, claimed Mr Russell.