Tony Kett (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. He is a former colleague of mine from our days on Dublin City Council. It is good to have him here. I am grateful for the opportunity to say a few words on this amending legislation. As the Minister of State said, the Proceeds of Crime (Amendment) Bill 1999 was introduced to amend aspects of the Proceeds of Crime Act 1996. It will ensure that the 1996 Act can fight effectively, as it was intended, against criminals who are trying to retain assets they have obtained as a result of unlawful activity or illegal operations. I understand that certain aspects of the original Act, such as the question of who is responsible for the assets of criminals following a court order to seize them, are open to interpretation.

The Bill should be welcomed by the Garda and others who work in this area because it will give them a major tool to use when tackling the nasty characters they encounter. Such workers will no longer be powerless when they try to challenge individuals whose lifestyles are far beyond what they can afford from legitimate means. Not only does the Bill provide that such criminals will be punished financially, but it also increases confidence in the system among the Garda and the public. It reassures the people that ill-gotten gains accumulated by criminals will eventually find their way back to the Exchequer. Criminals engage in their murky business so they can gain the trappings of wealth and enjoy the lifestyles they desire. Now that the CAB has proven itself, they are starting to wonder whether they can retain what they have gained illegally. That is an indication that we are starting to win the battle against them.

An examination of the Criminal Assets Bureau's record — the number of interim orders and interlocutory orders in respect of property, the number of demands for the payment of tax and the interest on such payments — demonstrates that it has enjoyed considerable success in dealing with people suspected of being involved in criminal activity. The bureau is highly respected nationally and internationally. In 2003, it obtained interim orders worth over €3 million and interlocutory orders worth almost €900,000. It demanded tax and interest of over €7 million and collected approximately €10 million in that year. It collected social welfare savings of €110 million and recoveries of almost €200,000 in 2003. Such figures comprise a tremendous record for a given year.

In the period between its statutory inception in October 1996 and the end of December 2003, the bureau obtained interim restraint orders to the value of approximately €51 million and final restraint orders worth approximately €22 million. It demanded taxes and interest of over €76 million in that period, of which €56 million was collected. There were social welfare payments of €1.5 million and recoveries of almost €500,000 between October 1996 and December 2003. Since its inception the bureau has achieved tremendous feats overall and in individual years.

Many of the moneys about which we are talking have been seized from drug barons. The drugs problem no longer pertains to Dublin and the other cities only — it has long since found its way to various towns and villages. The national drugs strategy was established to tackle the drugs issue in the most comprehensive way that has been done in the history of the State. It assigned clear responsibilities and set targets for the various Departments and agencies involved. The drugs task forces, which were established in the areas most affected, help communities, agencies and all those involved to work together in a developed way to tackle the issues which exist in each area. The task forces have been particularly effective in places where drug taking was endemic. Having served on Dublin City Council and worked in the north inner city for almost 18 years, I saw at first hand the devastating effects of drug taking on local areas.

We have made good progress in providing treatment to those who depend on drugs. The Eastern Regional Health Authority, which has expanded its services, has been involved in a significant degree of activity. The Minister of State, Deputy Callely, who was chairman of the authority when it was known as the Eastern Health Board, has first-hand experience of the efforts which were made at that time. There has been a major expansion of the methadone treatment programme, from 1,400 participants in 1995 to almost 7,000 now. The number of treatment locations has increased dramatically, despite a great deal of opposition from communities which did not want such centres to be based in their localities. The authority could be faulted for the manner in which it pursued the matter in certain instances. It tended to go to places to develop centres before leaking details of developments to the public. One can imagine the opposition to such centres that resulted from the secretive way in which they were developed. I experienced such problems at first hand. The authority has succeeded in establishing a significant number of centres, which are doing terrific work.

Prevention was one of the four pillars of the drugs strategy. While it is important to treat those in communities which have suffered from the scourge of drug taking, we should provide sufficient resources to those working in the area of prevention. The only way to prevent someone from developing a drug habit is to cut the supply. Gardaí and customs officers are to be congratulated on the significant seizures they have made in recent years. The amount seized is evidence in itself of the fact that we are still a major target for criminal gangs as a country to which they want to ship drugs. I have no doubt that, as gardaí and customs officers close down routes, the criminals will find other ones by which to ply their trade.

The Garda Síochána has seen success, seizing approximately €20 million in drugs in 2000, €45 million in 2001, €49 million in 2002 and €100 million in 2003. That is a very significant advance. I have no doubt that those who trade in drugs look at those figures and see they really have a fight on their hands. That fight will step up a notch because of legislation such as this. The Garda National Bureau of Fraud Investigation received over 4,000 reports of suspicious transactions to the value of €271 million in 2002, and over 4,000 reports to the value of €450 million in 2003. Those are examples of the bureau's success rate.

Organised crime is a relatively new phenomenon in this country, having its origins in the drug trade of the early 1980s. The Government's response has been hard-hitting, something demonstrated by the legislation passed by this House. In recent years, the Criminal Justice (Illicit Traffic by Sea) Act 2003, which is designed to tackle the movement of drugs across our waters, has become law. It is quite difficult to stop it, since we have a coastline of over 3,000 km. With the best will in the world, that is a difficult coastline to protect. There is no doubt that one cannot do it 100%.

It is therefore paramount that we continue to nurture good relations with our neighbours in the European Union. The drugs obviously emanate from outside our waters. If we enjoy good relations and neighbourliness with other countries and develop relationships, that too will help. For that reason, the Criminal Justice (Joint Investigation Teams) Act 2004 was most welcome. The Act allows teams to be set up for a specific purpose and period of time to carry out criminal investigations with cross-border dimensions. That will be a very effective Act into the future.

I have heard my colleague opposite encourage the Minister to ring-fence confiscated moneys. The notion has a certain amount of credit, but I also see the other side of the argument. The money coming in is not recurrent, and one never knows from one year to the next exactly what one will have in the coffers. If one is planning a system in a community where one might establish a structure, it is difficult to do so without knowing one will have the money to do so the following year. Judging by the success rate of the Criminal Assets Bureau and the National Bureau of Fraud Investigation, there is no doubt funds are available, but initially one will certainly have that problem. Perhaps once-off money might be used as a capital allocation to put a structure in place in a community that might need repair or demolition and replacement. A voluntary effort might go into running it. That is not the most desirable scenario. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, has a problem with the idea, but I understand the commendable thinking behind it. Perhaps we should examine a way of putting something into specific areas subjected to the scourge of drugs. I wish the Minister of State, Deputy Callely, well in steering the Bill through the House.