GAA grounds could fall under any new hooligan laws after Bryson legal case against Stormont department
GAA grounds could be brought under football hooligan laws for the first time as part of a review of regulations prompted by a legal challenge by Jamie Bryson.
Stormont’s justice minister has now accepted that changes will need to be made to legislation to ensure penalties are enforceable – despite denying that was necessary earlier this year.
Naomi Long’s department was seeking to rush through updates to the rules before the start of the new football season, but that has been resisted by the DUP chair of the justice committee who wants full scrutiny of any changes.
Banning orders were not introduced for Gaelic games when crowd control measures were introduced under the Justice Act 2011, as the GAA “did not wish to have” them made available to their sports in Northern Ireland, Mrs Long’s officials have said.
That law included provisions to regulate sport here – including behaviour at regulated matches and a ban on the consumption of alcohol by fans in vehicles travelling to matches.
It also brought in football banning orders to deal with violent or offensive conduct in local grounds – but that only applied to football.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) said its counterparts in the Department for Communities (DfC) will now consider extending the powers to women's club football, Gaelic games, rugby and other sports “in any future review of the legislation”.
The issue was brought to light when Mr Bryson, a lawyer and political activist, took a judicial review against the DoJ over whether regulations aimed at controlling hooliganism and anti-social behaviour at Northern Ireland football grounds are legal as they had not been updated to take into account changes in league governance structures.
Mrs Long had previously said the powers were still active, citing a law from the 1950s about the interpretation of legislation as “always speaking”, meaning it would continue to operate without an update.
However, in May the DoJ announced its intent to amend the legislation – prompting claims of a climbdown.
In a letter to the justice committee in June, seen by the News Letter, DoJ proposes changing regulations to omit the “outdated references to IFA” and replace it with NI Football League. It was these outdated provisions which had been highlighted by Mr Bryson.
He told the News Letter: “The correspondence via the justice committee confirms the DoJ’s initial position was nonsense. It explicitly now accepts the act needs updating when there is a new league operator, having previously asserted – bizarrely – the act was ‘always speaking’.
“It is welcome also that having raised the matter in my correspondence to the justice committee, this has now elicited a commitment from the minister to consider updating the legislation to also encompass within the regulatory framework the GAA in a future review.
“There is no basis – other than two-tier justice – why the GAA is exempted from that which applies to other sports.
“Naomi Long has climbed down in epic fashion, whilst desperately pretending not to be seen to be doing so, even going so far as to pretend she is only doing so because of the DfC.
“The truth of the matter is the DoJ have been caught with their pants down, by me, and they are so enraged they are trying to climb down in the darkness hoping no one notices.
“I look forward to further engagement with the committee on these matters to ensure the dog’s dinner the DoJ made of the act is corrected.”
DUP MLA Paul Frew, who chairs the justice committee, has questioned whether other sports and codes – like GAA, rugby and hockey – should be regulated.
“I note that DfC will consider the extension of these powers to women’s club football, Gaelic games, rugby, and other sports in any future review of the legislation but why not take the time to do it now when they are already amending and updating the law?” he said.
The letter from Mrs Long’s office to the justice committee said: “DfC advises that responses to consultation by the then Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure on what would become Part 4 and Schedule 3 of the Justice Act 2011 showed that GAA did not wish to have banning orders made available to their sports in Northern Ireland.
“DfC will consider the extension of these powers to women's club football, Gaelic games, rugby and other sports in any future review of the legislation.”
A DoJ spokesperson said: “The 2011 Act created offences to promote good behaviour by fans of association football, Gaelic games and rugby. The offences are unauthorised pitch incursion; offensive chanting; missile throwing; the possession of flares or fireworks; and the possession of alcohol on hired buses en route to regulated matches.
“It also introduced football banning orders for the purpose of helping to prevent violence and disorder at association football matches. A court is able to make a banning order prohibiting a person from attending certain football matches for a set period. It is a criminal offence to fail to comply with a football banning order”.
They also said the proposed changes remove “outdated references” to the Irish Football Association and the Football Association of Ireland, replacing them with the Northern Ireland Football League and the League of Ireland respectively; and takes the opportunity to update the names of relevant football championships and leagues.
They said DoJ were making the changes “following instruction by” DfC.
Officials said the original regulations “were considered to be at the intersection of sport and criminal justice”, and it was agreed that they would be taken forward in a Justice Bill – but “policy ownership for the Part 4 provisions remained with DCAL” (now DfC).