Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do, with your indulgence, Acting Chairman.

The members of the Rural Independent Group are supportive of this. Any right-thinking Member or person would be supportive of it. As I said, several enactments are being amended, some of which are rather old. The criminal justice legislation is only from this year but this Bill is also relevant to section 30 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977. I was only doing my leaving certificate in school at that time. It is important that some of the legislation is updated and upgraded, especially when we are dealing with a situation of international crime gangs and money laundering and all that goes with it. The Criminal Justice Act 1994 is amended as well. It is important that we put them all together and have a workable document. It is important to provide clarity for our police service - the Garda Síochána in this case - and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. They need to be able to understand clearly rather than playing hide-and-seek with these marauding terrorists. They are terrorists. I know terrorism has been used in a different vein today - something I very much resent, but we will deal with that in the next session. This is terrorism because people are the victims of all these heinous crimes in their homes. They are literally terrorised in their homes, businesses and communities, whether they are at work or play. It is important that we pull together the various strands of the Acts, including the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010. That is what it is. It is important we embrace all those provisions in this legislation. That is why I support it. This is relevant for anyone who supports or who speaks against the 2010 Act or this legislation.

We have the tools of the trade, as I said earlier, to put a stop to these people, get them off the road, take the wheels off their wagon and take the wind out of their sails. We have a proper framework of legislation that can be applied swiftly with the assistance of other agencies of the State and those all over the world to put a stop to the corruption and money laundering because they represent a cancer on society.

We have looked in awe at other countries over the years. We saw it with some Third World countries and we still see it with corrupt governments and situations there. We were a pretty modern and young democracy. We should not have allowed this to mushroom to be nurtured and to get-----

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