Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman, Deputy Durkan, for the opportunity of speaking on this important piece of legislation. I welcome the Proceeds of Crime (Amendment) Bill 2014 and I strongly commend Deputy Eamonn Maloney for bringing it before the House. It is a relevant and topical piece of legislation, but is also sensible and practical. Like my colleague, Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan, the first person I thought of when I saw Deputy Maloney's Bill coming through was the late Deputy Tony Gregory. I note that a number of colleagues have mentioned Tony, who was one of those who influenced me to get involved in politics when I worked in the north inner city and also when I was principal of a school.

The Bill is relevant today because there are very wealthy people making a lot of money out of organised crime. In the past 12 months there have been 12 deaths on the streets of Dublin and around the country, yet there have been no prosecutions. That shows how serious the issue is. Sometimes we do not even bat an eyelid when there is another gangland killing on our streets. That is unacceptable. Even in the past few days, the reports of a person being shot on the streets of Belfast at 9 o'clock in the morning have sent a shiver through every spine. We should never, ever be silent on this issue.

That brings me to the issue, related to discussion of the Bill, of guns in society. We need to examine this and to be vigilant. The Bill is important in that it targets those senior criminals who are making the money, but then it is important that the money is distributed to the people who have suffered as a consequence of these bully-boy antics. Many communities have been intimidated. Recently, I attended a number of meetings in my constituency about the fact that whole streets were being intimidated by a certain gang. One gang leader, together with around 20 or 30 young men, was spreading fear up and down those streets and the families were so intimidated they would not even dream of going near the Garda. They were telephoning local TDs such as myself and asking them to intervene and talk to the senior gardaí. We need to focus on that, because there is a significant element of society that is being marginalised and left out there on its own. When making these points, it is important that we say to those in middle Ireland who think drug-taking is acceptable in some way that they must accept responsibility as well, because the drug dealers will follow the market. If there is a market in the affluent Ireland for cocaine, the drug dealers will move into it and make money on the back of it. That needs to be said.

At present, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, of which I am a member, is doing a lot of valuable work, under Deputy David Stanton, on gangland crime in the community. We have held a lot of hearings. We have heard presentations from all the different voluntary groups, drugs groups, parents' groups and victims of crime, and we will be producing a comprehensive report. I hope the Minister will support the recommendations when that report is issued in either the summer or the autumn.

The Bill amends section 4 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 1996 by changing the period of freezing of assets from seven years to two years, and I warmly welcome that. It also amends section 4A of the Proceeds of Crime Act. This is the substance of the legislation.

When talking about crime and the proceeds of crime, as I mentioned earlier, we also need to think about the issue of firearms. There is significant a public safety concern among broader society about the availability of firearms, both legal and illegal. According to recent research done by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, there are around 150,000 unregistered firearms. I am not talking about the responsible gun owners and the sensible people. I am talking about unregistered firearms. It is important to mention the threat to broader society. Between 2005 and 2008, 31 handguns were stolen and 1,236 other civilian firearms were stolen. Of the 1,236 firearms, only 373 were recovered. We need to be focused, and responsible gun owners need to be vigilant.

They need to be careful. We need strong regulation and commonsense when dealing with this issue because we have enough guns in the broader society, a fact which must be recognised.

It is very important that we ensure the money recouped as a result of the Proceeds of Crime Act is put into services on the ground. We have many excellent projects in disadvantaged communities, such as preschool services, football clubs, children's clubs and other groups that are making a very valuable contribution to society. These groups regularly get in touch with us looking for funds and some of the requests are not for a lot of money. This week, a group of young adults with Down's syndrome got in touch with me. They are doing a course in Trinity College Dublin and needed €1,000 to finish it. I have been in touch with the Minister about it but it is an example of what can be done with a small amount of money. This Proceeds of Crime (Amendment) Bill could enable us to do a lot of work. We need to target children in particular. We need to deal with the issues of poverty and housing and with the issue of early education disadvantage. One has to get in early to save many of the children in these circumstances.

Many families in disadvantaged communities, where poverty levels are high, are not involved in any criminal activity. We should look at them as examples of good practice and of how some families can do an excellent job against the odds. We have a duty not to forget those families. One also has to target the 15% or 20% of very dysfunctional families that need supports and help but many others, whom I call the "silent majority", get up in the morning and send their children to school against the odds. They walk past gang leaders and drug addicts, they step over needles and syringes and yet they manage to survive because they are such incredible people. Society must ensure we never forget them and we need the resources from the proceeds of crime to be spent on these communities, particularly in the area of early education. If we can get to these children between the ages of two and four, before they start primary school, we can have a massive impact on their lives. If we invest in early education, preschool education and primary education there will be results and that has been proved recently in the valuable work done by many DEIS schools.

I warmly welcome the debate and commend Deputy Eamonn Maloney again on bringing the Bill before the House. I am delighted that there seems to be cross-party support for the legislation. I can see the late Tony Gregory looking down on us with a wry smile at a cross-party group of Deputies supporting something about which he cared very passionately. I welcome the legislation and I will strongly support it.

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