Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I have examined this but I do not understand the point made by the Deputy. I can understand that a body representing accountants would like to restrict as much as possible what it would regard as bureaucracy but from the point of view of getting proper reporting a number of significant pieces of legislation include both the Garda Síochána and the Revenue Commissioners, such as section 59 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 and the existing money laundering provisions under section 57 of the Criminal Justice Act 1994. We believe it is necessary to have separate and distinct statutory provisions. Deleting "and the Revenue Commissioners" would weaken the legislation. The number of reports already received by the Garda Síochána under the 2001 Act is low at approximately 100 reports annually in comparison to the figure of approximately 14,500 suspicious transactions reported annually. We would be concerned that if it was restricted solely to the Garda Síochána the number of reports would be curtailed and that would not be preferable.

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