Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Persons involved in organised criminal activities are being targeted by An Garda Síochána in a number of ways, including uniform and plain clothes personnel overtly and covertly disrupting known criminals in the course of criminal activities. Such criminals, their operating methods, criminal interests and financial assets are proactively targeted through intelligence-led operations, for example, Operation Anvil.

Multi-agency approaches have been and continue to be used where all of the national units from the Garda national support services are used to combat serious crime. In addition, an intensified programme of multi-agency checkpoints involving officers from the Department of Social and Family Affairs is being undertaken. The Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, which includes a number of social welfare inspectors appointed as bureau officers, is being actively utilised to identify and target funds accumulated by criminals in order to seize such assets and to deprive them of the profits of their criminal activity.

Some 102 Garda divisional asset profilers have been trained by CAB and are now in place in every Garda division. Their role is to collate information at a local level and to carry out preparatory groundwork in advance of a full investigation by CAB. The social welfare inspectors attached to the bureau investigate and determine social welfare entitlements of persons who derive assets from criminal activity.

In addition, the regional director's office of the Department of Social and Family Affairs fully co-operates with all requests by CAB officers in respect of cases and refers departmental cases deemed suitable for consideration of investigation and determination by the bureau. The effectiveness of this approach can be seen from the fact that, in the period since CAB's inception up to the end of 2007, it made savings of more than €3.5 million and recovered €2.5 million in respect of social welfare payments.

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