Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 4, between lines 36 and 37, to insert the following:“(8) Where property is seized and detained under subsection (1) or (2), an application to the Court for an interim order or an interlocutory order in respect of the property shall be made by the bureau officer concerned as soon as he or she has enough evidence to make such an application.”.

I reread the Minister of State's reply in respect of this amendment when it was tabled in the Upper House. This is a technical amendment in the sense that where there is a robust prima faciecase, the provision in the amendment would allow for an application to be made for an interim interlocutory order in respect of the property in advance of the 21 days elapsing. If one is allowed to detain a person for questioning for seven days but if, after 24 hours, one has a robust case, one should proceed to charge that individual. One would not need to wait seven days just because one is allowed to hold a person for that length of time before a charge is proffered. Where there is a robust case, one should not be debarred from making an application to the court for an interim order in advance of the 21-day period that is provided for elapsing.

The reasoning the Tánaiste is about to outline in respect of the amendment will be to the effect that this is probably one of the most litigated areas in criminal law. As a result of the fact that each sentence in the original Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, legislation has been parsed and analysed to such a degree and there is reluctance to dislodge any of the provisions contained in that legislation, I am not going to the wire in respect of the amendment. I certainly do not want to do anything that would dislodge the legislation. However, it would facilitate matters if we included a provision whereby if a robust and clear case exists, authorised CAB officers who feel confident of the bona fides of that case could go to court before the 21-day period has elapsed. There was no legal bar to them doing that.

See this speech in context