Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)

It would be good practice to place a mechanism like this on a statutory footing. Doing so would underline the original intention behind CAB when it was set up in the mid to late 1990s, which was to redirect that money back into the communities most impacted by crime. Crime, poverty and exploitation go hand in hand. There is the boxing club that is charging kids €2 for membership. Some of the larger football clubs that are getting several hundred euro in subscriptions. We are missing something when we fail to recognise that this poverty kind of has taxation built into it, especially for clubs in certain areas. Placing that oversight mechanism on a statutory footing would mean the fund would be used for its intended purpose. Doing so would not be too onerous and would actually be good practice. I urge the Minister to take this on.