Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As my colleagues have stated, Sinn Féin will support this Bill, which transposes EU directives that will help in the fight against fraud and will be in the financial interests of the EU and, by extension, Ireland. It is welcome that this Bill tackles further aspects of white-collar crime, corruption and fraud of public money. The EU sources of income, however, include contributions from member countries and it is right we try to ensure that every single euro of the EU budget is spent for its intended purposes. It is critical we have good co-operation across the EU when it comes to tackling areas of fraud, including public money.

For citizens to be confident their money is being properly used, the EU needs to protect its financial interests. This legislation will provide for the transposition of the remaining elements of the anti-fraud EU directive to strengthen the fight against fraud to the Union's fiscal interest by means of criminal law.

If I may, I will refer to some issues that have come up in my local area. It is a slight deviation from the Bill. There has, however, been a spate of robberies in my locality in recent times, which has left people feeling insecure. It is an invasion of privacy and some of them are fearful of the burglars returning. I can understand the stolen cash can be difficult to trace unless someone with no means suddenly seems to have a lot of money.

However, many of the people involved have said that they have had jewellery stolen, sometimes of great monetary value and sometimes of sentimental value. There has also been farm theft and the theft of workmen's tools and people's bicycles. Are the regulations strong enough in the context of the resale of these items? Are pawnshops doing enough to make sure that the jewellery they receive is coming from the legitimate owners and has not been stolen?

Much of this is linked to the number of gardaí stationed in rural areas being insufficient. Many Garda stations have been closed. A small number of gardaí are being asked to cover much larger areas. Members of the community in Drumconrath, County Meath, contacted me recently to say that they feel abandoned by the Garda. There was a break-in there recently that was carried out by someone who was already out on bail but the Garda seems reluctant to deal with this person, to the extent that people in the community wondered if this individual had ever been arrested for the initial offence. I contacted the Minister about this matter before Christmas and I am disappointed that I have not even received an acknowledgement, never mind a reply from her. She lives quite near the area in question, even though it is located in my constituency. A bigger effort needs to be made to keep communities informed of what is happening with regard to crime and to increase the number of gardaí covering rural areas.

There is also an amendment to the Bill in the context of pet theft. It seems that a large number of dogs have been stolen during the Covid-19 pandemic. This type of occurrence was commonplace throughout the country last year. Having a pet stolen can be extremely distressing because pets are like part of the family. I am not sure if this matter fits exactly with the amendment but it is something that needs to be dealt with. Dogs are being stolen for breeding purposes or to be sold on for exorbitant amounts of money. It is totally unfair. Genuine pet lovers who are attempting to buy dogs are unable to do so because of the lack of availability or the exorbitant prices being charged. Something needs to be done to tackle that matter as well.

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