Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Minister, I thank Deputy Dowds for raising this important matter and assure him the Minister attaches the highest priority to the investigation and detection of white collar crime and to ensuring that An Garda Síochána has available to it the necessary legislative and other supports to this end. I, too, share Deputy Dowds's genuine concern regarding this matter.

Within eight weeks of taking up office, the Minister moved urgently to draft additional legislation which was enacted on 2 August last year as the Criminal Justice Act 2011. This Act provides vital assistance to An Garda Síochána in the completion of current white collar crime investigations as well as providing assistance to it for investigations to be undertaken in the future.

Moreover, the Minister is being briefed on an ongoing basis by the Garda Commissioner on the progress of the major white collar crime investigations which are underway. The Minister has sought and received assurance at all times that the necessary resources and expertise are available to An Garda Síochána to effectively investigate these matters.

As Deputy Dowds will be aware, charges have been brought against a number of persons under the Companies Act 1963 arising from the investigations into Anglo Irish Bank. Further directions are awaited from the Director of Public Prosecutions in regard to the other strands of the investigation. A full Garda team remains assigned to the investigation to conduct necessary follow up and other inquiries. The Deputy will appreciate that the important thing now is that nothing be said which would in any way risk the possibility of prejudicing any current or future criminal proceedings.

The Minister is aware that the Deputy has previously raised the question of conviction rates in the context of white collar crime and believes that great care should be taken in comparing conviction rates between different years. The investigation, detection and prosecution of any offence may take a number of years. This is particularly so where the crime may be complex, as is often the case in fraud and white collar crime offences. Accordingly, the initial conviction rate for any given year will inevitably appear lower than the eventual rate.

In particular, the figures produced by the CSO should not be read as a final picture with respect to all investigations or prosecutions but rather a snapshot of proceedings at a particular point in time. The most recent published figures for detections and convictions in 2010 are a snapshot of the position as it stood in October 2011 and more detections and convictions will naturally have occurred since then.

The investigation and detection of fraud offences poses particular challenges for investigators when compared with crimes against the person and this is the general experience internationally. In the case of a once-off fraud committed against a consumer, the offence may only become apparent to the victim some time after the event and there may be very little information to help identify the culprits. In the case of online frauds, those responsible may be located overseas. In regard to more complex fraud and financial investigations, the sheer volume of material to be investigated means that it takes much longer to bring these offences to trial than with some other crime categories.

However, the Minister would note that according to the latest CSO figures, 51% of all fraud offences recorded in 2010 had been detected by October 2011 and in those cases where proceedings had commenced, there had already been convictions in 46% of instances. While our crime recording systems are not directly comparable, it is illustrative of the challenges faced to note that the detection rate for fraud offences in England and Wales for 2010-11 is given as 24%.

Notwithstanding these challenges, the Minister is determined that perpetrators be brought to justice. He has taken concrete steps to ensure that An Garda Síochána has the necessary supports to carry out such investigations and has made it clear that any additional legislative proposals the Garda Commissioner may have in this regard will be positively considered.

See this speech in context