Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I cannot think of any other state in the world that was literally bankrupted by the behaviour of white collar corruption and criminality, where the people were so outraged, and where funding was subsequently cut to the very bodies which are at the front line and supposed to be tackling that. In 2014, three years into the Government's term of office, Remy Farrell, one of the most eminent senior counsel in terms of tackling such criminality in the State, said there was never a better time to be a white collar criminal.

One of the proposals put to the Minister in 2014 and 2015 was from the columnist and respected commentator, Elaine Byrne. She proposed having an independent audit of the capacity of the oversight agencies to do their job, namely, the Criminal Assets Bureau, the ODCE, the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigations, the Central Bank, the Revenue Commissioners, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, NBCI, and the Competition Authority. She suggested overarching oversight of all those bodies would best be provided by An Garda Síochána to ensure they acted in a joined-up manner. Has the Minister taken on board Elaine Byrne's recommendation and what will she do to address two issues, namely, the capacity of those bodies to do their job, which would be established by means of an independent audit, and the way they are resourced? I raise the matter because I do not believe the issue has been addressed. It has been the biggest issue in the criminal justice system and has been the biggest failure of the Government. I raise the matter in the last days of this Dáil to see whether the Minister can give an assurance that the situation will improve in the future.

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