Mr. Niall Cody:

The costs are significant. We have a ship that is not legally seaworthy, and it was not legally seaworthy when it managed to smuggle 30 million cigarettes into Drogheda Port. Organised criminal gangs do not seem to have the same regard for health and safety that we have to have. Ultimately, our powers allow us to seize conveyance. We seize fuel, fuel tanks, lorries, cars and other vehicles, and ships. We usually manage to dispose of everything we seize in a reasonably timely way. It is not a money-making operation; it is to disrupt the criminal gangs that are involved in the operations. Unfortunately, when we seized the MV Shingle, there was a three-year gap because it had to be retained for evidence until court proceedings were finished. That is a standard process for much of the stuff we seize.