Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree that the impact organised crime and those involved in organised crime can have on our communities is devastating. They intimidate and inflict violence and misery on all parts of our community. It is a top priority for me, my Government and this Department to take swift action supported by and supporting the Garda Commissioner and his team. This includes increasing the maximum sentence for conspiracy to murder from ten years to life. This takes into account those who direct gangland crime but do not tend to get their hands dirty. Their active role needs to be dealt with in a different way and that is why I have increased the maximum sentence. We are enacting new laws to criminalise the grooming of children into a life of crime. We spoke of this the other day. It is absolutely imperative that we acknowledge the harm that is caused to younger and younger children as they are dragged and coerced into this life of crime. That is what that legislation is focused on. We are drafting new laws which will provide for the use of facial recognition technology, including in the investigation of certain drug offences.

We are also rolling out support programmes to break the link between gangs and the children they recruit. That is the Greentown project, which is showing great success in the areas in which it is operating. The intention is that we would roll this out on a more nationwide basis. With the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, leading the youth justice strategy and as part of budget 2024, a further €2.9 million was secured for youth diversion measures. This is a 10% increase on the year before, bringing the total budget to over €33 million, meaning that every part of the country now has a youth diversion programme. It is now expanding and looking at more targeted areas, acknowledging in particular that younger children aged seven to nine are now being impacted by this type of activity.

I have also introduced plans to strengthen the State’s ability to seize criminal assets and to target the proceeds of crime. This new Bill will also speed up the process to dispose of the assets for the benefit of the State. The best way we can hit these organised crime groups is in their pockets, taking away their assets and the benefits of their criminal activity and reinvesting that money into communities. In the last three years alone, over €8.5 million has been taken directly from those criminal gangs and invested directly back into our communities and organisations. There is a huge amount of other work being done by An Garda Síochána, which I will touch upon later.

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