James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all of our witnesses to today's session, both in person and online. Apologies have been received from Deputies Pringle and Martin Kenny and Senator Ruane. We may be joined by other committee members over the course of the meeting.

I remind everyone to turn off their mobile phones so that they do not interfere with the recording. We have a number of items on our agenda today, the first of which is the Proceeds of Crime (Gross Human Rights Abuses) Bill 2020. We have waived the requirement for pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill so today's meeting is best described as an engagement with stakeholders to better inform the committee of the provisions contained in the Bill. For clarity, we have already waived the scrutiny requirement so no further steps are necessary in order for the Bill to proceed to the next Stage.

We are joined by Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins and Mr. Kevin McMeel from the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB. From the Department of Justice, we are joined by Ms Rachel Woods, assistant secretary and head of legislation for criminal justice, and Mr. Brendan Bruen, principal officer. We are joined remotely by Mr. William Browder from the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign.

Mr. Browder is joining us online and is very welcome to the committee.

I think all witnesses will be familiar with privilege and the rule that we do not criticise or make charges against any person who, or entity that, does not have a right to defend themselves in the committee. That is particularly so in the case of Mr. Browder. As he is online, we cannot guarantee that privilege will extend to any comments he may make. Please be mindful of that when giving evidence. Unfortunately, he cannot benefit from the same protections that accrue inside the committee room as may accrue outside it. I am sure Mr. Browder is very aware how all that works.

I will invite each of the three organisations before the committee today to make an opening statement. As per usual committee practise, we will ask that each statement be curtailed to three minutes per organisation. Then we will have further questions and answers between the members and witnesses as the meeting goes on. We are going to have a slightly shorter time for questions and answers than we might usually allow. I will ask each member to keep their questions and answers to three minutes. We can do a second round if needs be but we will try to keep the meeting moving expeditiously.

We will begin with the Criminal Assets Bureau and Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins. There is a clock in the corner. He can keep an eye on it, if he wants to mind his time. He has three minutes to make his opening remarks.