Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will be aware that the Justice Plan 2021 commits to tackling economic, or white collar, crime and corruption by implementing, in collaboration with other agencies, new anti-corruption and anti-fraud measures informed by the Hamilton review.

The report of the Hamilton review group, the Review of Structures and Strategies to Prevent, Investigate and Penalise Economic Crime and Corruption, was published in December 2020. It contains a number of recommendations focusing primarily on legislative, structural and resourcing measures to enhance the capacity of agency and multi-agency enforcement, and the prevention of corruption and white-collar crime.

The Minister, Deputy McEntee, published the cross-government plan on implementing the Hamilton review on 19 April 2021. The implementation plan sets out 22 actions to be completed by State agencies and Departments to progress the Hamilton report’s recommendations within the next year and a half, and sets timelines for the completion of these actions. The actions in the implementation plan include an advisory council against economic crime and corruption to advise and make proposals on strategic and policy responses that will be established at the centre of Government by the autumn; a multi-annual strategy to combat economic crime and corruption will be developed and submitted to Cabinet by next spring; and a resourcing plan for the long-term needs of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau will be submitted by An Garda Síochána to the Policing Authority and Department of Justice by this summer. Legislation to extend the surveillance powers currently available to An Garda Síochána and the Revenue Commissioners to other bodies with a remit to investigate economic crime and corruption is to be developed by the end of this year, among other legislative proposals.

I can inform the Deputy that work is under way in my Department to establish a cross-sector, partnership-based advisory council against economic crime and corruption to lead implementation of the action plan, including the establishment of a forum of operational representatives.

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