Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are all agreed that at the heart of this issue there are vulnerable people and, basically, they are being exploited. It is a major fraud and a scam being perpetrated throughout the country. By any yardstick, given the amount of reportage on the matter, there seems to be no oversight whatsoever from any State agencies, an issue of major public concern and one we should be concerned about in the House. Since some of these people are vulnerable they want to remain private. None of them is coming forward to make complaints to An Garda Síochána.

It is noteworthy that some of the individuals operating these trusts - I have no wish to call them trusts - tried to align themselves to the political establishment. They contacted people in the Houses of the Oireachtas and sought meetings. One such person was my colleague, Senator Thomas Byrne, who met them. As a result of meeting them he was so alarmed that he wrote to An Garda Síochána and made an official complaint. Regrettably, he got back a reply, a copy of which I have, stating that it was not a formal complaint. However, he put a complaint in writing and it is high time that paper stopped shuffling around the desks of An Garda Síochána at a high level and that the force took the issue seriously.

The Minister of State has outlined in clear terms what trust law provides for. She stated that these people are trading on the notion of a distinction between the living man and the freeman. It does not stack up. We need to hear from our agencies of State but above all we need to hear from the Government. What exactly is the Government going to do in this regard? How many other operations exist? Are there up to half a dozen similar entities operating in the country? At the heart of this is mass fraud and misrepresentation. Vulnerable people are being targeted and are effectively being taken for a financial scam but no one seems to be concerning themselves about it.

As I stated, Senator Thomas Byrne wrote officially to the Garda Síochána-----

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