John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I am not in a position to ring-fence funds from the Criminal Assets Bureau. I cannot give such a commitment. I have answered questions in this regard previously in the Dáil. While funding from the Criminal Assets Bureau would be highly symbolic, by its nature this is not easy to do. There is an onus on the State that funding is made available through the normal Vote and that the income comes into the Exchequer, including the Criminal Assets Bureau funding. Not all the funding that accrues to the Criminal Assets Bureau comes from drug-related crime. That is also an issue. If the Deputy's proposal were accepted, the amount of funding provided would vary from year to year. In my view, such variations in funding would cause greater difficulties than the difficulties we are facing at the moment. I will put it into context. While the level of funding has been reduced in the current year, the reduction is not as great as the reduction that has been seen in other areas. We have worked hard to ensure that the level of funding provided to drug task force projects throughout the country remains at the maximum level. I reiterate that the relevant figure has decreased from €34.6 million last year to €32.5 million this year.

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