James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. This is an important Bill while it is technical in nature. There are 25 billion euro banknotes in circulation throughout the European Union, with a value of more than €1.4 trillion. As I stated earlier, the chances of a note being counterfeited in 2020 was only 17 in 1 million. Most counterfeit bank notes are very low quality and thankfully quickly detected. Much of this is down to the new security measures in current bank notes. Nevertheless, we must keep vigilant. We need to stay strong on these issues and that is why we are introducing this legislation to ensure harmonisation across the European Union in tackling these very serious issues.

Deputy Catherine Murphy spoke about targeting messages to vulnerable people who may be targeted by criminals involved in counterfeiting or money laundering and I agree with her on that. Some young people are being taken advantage of with devastating consequences resulting in them being prosecuted for being money mules or for other such activities.

Deputy Durkan spoke about a review of EU legislation. I can assure the Deputy that has already occurred; it happened as soon as I became a Minister of State in the Department of Justice.

A number of other Deputies spoke about delays that have happened and I acknowledge that is the case. I thank the officials in the Department of Justice who have supported me since I became Minister of State. I am determined to get any backlog on the transposition of EU legislation through the Dáil and Seanad as quickly as possible. To that end the Criminal Justice (Mutual Recognition of Decisions on Supervision Measures) Act, enacted in November, was brought through both Houses in a matter of months. We completed all Dáil stages of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Bill, which is currently on Report Stage in the Seanad. We have completed all Seanad stages and the Dáil Second Stage in the transposition of the protection of the Union's financial interests, PIF, directive and we expect to enact that in the coming weeks.

We have also published and progressed the Bill before the house today. Two particularly important bills are on the priority list due for publication by Easter on prisoner transfers and people-smuggling. There is a standing note with the Whip's office that I am prepared to come into the Dáil or Seanad to move legislation at short notice to get it through as quickly as possible and have it enacted so that we can no longer be accused of being a laggard. There has been substantial work in clearing the backlog and I am confident that we can clear the rest of the backlog as quickly as possible. Limited time in the Dáil and Seanad is the only thing holding us back.

This Bill specifically relates to the counterfeiting of hard cash, both notes and coins. It does not relate to online money laundering. However, measures on cybersecurity, fraud, anti-money laundering and terrorist financing are being dealt with in other legislation we are introducing.

The Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I and the Department of Justice are implementing new anti-fraud and anti-corruption structures, informed by the work of the review group of the Hamilton report. That is a programme for Government commitment and recommendations contained in it will be implemented. There will be an action plan, which will be coupled with timelines. We are being very proactive in tackling online crime.

Deputy Ó Murchú referred to the National Cyber Security Centre. Technically that comes under the aegis of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan. However, cybersecurity is also of great importance to the Department of Justice and all Departments work with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on the National Cyber Security Centre.

Deputy Ó Murchú also mentioned the issue of youth justice. This is a hugely important matter for me as a Minister of State, as many parts of youth justice come under my remit. We will launch the youth justice strategy in the next few weeks. It has been a number of years in the making and many stakeholders have had input into it. It will expand the youth justice services that are there at the moment for young people who come into contact with the justice system, as well as those who are very hard to reach. We will be trying to achieve early intervention and identify indicators of people who may come into touch with the youth justice system in order that we can intervene at an earlier point to help them. Ten or 12 years ago, around 20,000 young people per year came into contact with the justice system and that is now down to about 10,000. As Deputy Ó Murchú pointed out, there are about 1,000 really hard-to-reach young people who are consistently committing crimes and we need to intervene with them.

The Greentown project that was mentioned did a massive piece of research over five years, identifying how young people are being groomed and brought into the criminal system either by gangs, community groups or family members. It also examined how we can target those areas to disrupt the criminal activity, support families and the community and provide alternative pro-social activities for those young people. We must not only stop them committing crimes but find alternative positive things in which they can get involved. The Greentown project is massively important through that research and a number of pilot projects have now started. I am not at liberty to say where they are being carried out for sensitive reasons but they have commenced and will set out a template. Only yesterday I met representatives of the Solas Project, which is doing fantastic work in south-west Dublin by working with hard-to-reach younger people who have not only been involved with the justice system but perhaps have been imprisoned. It has a policy of never giving up and has had massive success in turning young people away from criminal activity.

I had a conversation with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, about how we can find pathways for young people who may be in touch with the criminal justice system but who are also early school leavers. Apprenticeships could potentially play a huge role for those young people but because they do not have their junior certificate qualification in maths, they cannot take up an apprenticeship, so alternatives will be looked at in that regard. When people turn their life away from crime and become positive members of society, they should be supported to continue on that path as much as possible.

We also have the antisocial behaviour forum, which held a high level meeting yesterday on trying to find alternative activities for young people to get them away from crime. In particular we spoke about scramblers and quad bikes, which is an area in which the Acting Chairman, Deputy Lahart, is very interested. We must find alternative pathways for those young people either to get away from antisocial behaviour using quad bikes or scramblers or alternatively, as has happened in Moyross in Limerick, to find a productive way to use their scramblers in a safe manner within the communities.

Deputy Catherine Murphy raised the issue of regulatory impact assessments. These are always being carried out and if I have any further information I will give it to her.

I thank the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau for its continued work in challenging counterfeiting and in particular the payment card counterfeit currency unit, PCCCU, which is very much focused on tackling this type of money fraud and counterfeiting crime. It is doing much good work behind the scenes on this issue.

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. There will be a further opportunity to discuss many of these issues on Committee Stage. There have been significant delays in much of this type of legislation but I assure all Deputies that this will no longer be the case.

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