Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I also welcome the Bill. It has been delayed for five years because of legal challenges but this is an opportunity to close loopholes and to provide the broadest practical definitions and flexibility of operation.

This is one of the most important and successful criminal law initiatives ever undertaken. The original legislation was introduced as a Private Members' Bill by the then Fianna Fáil spokesperson, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy O'Donoghue, and was subsequently adopted by the former Minister for Justice, Nora Owen. It was perhaps a turning point in the fight against crime. It took place against the background of the murder of Veronica Guerin, who was a friend and close colleague of mine, having worked for a few months on the fifth floor of Leinster House, and the scandalous situation that existed at the time whereby extremely wealthy drugs barons flaunted their wealth with apparent immunity. Nobody was able to obtain the necessary proof to connect them to the criminal acts that sustained their wealth. The Act enabled us to get to grips with the problem and it has been widely copied and admired elsewhere. I personally heard Prime Minister Blair express his admiration for the Act but, given that the legal and constitutional issues have been clarified, this legislation will enable its important work to be carried out more efficiently.

Given that a seven year freeze was provided under the Act, not much income has been transferred to the State, though the legislation provides for matters to be tied up by consent within the seven-year period and, therefore, more income may pass to the State. It is reasonable that dependants should be given enough to live on from the frozen assets. The Minister of State also suggested short-circuiting the rigmarole of going into the formalistic proof of the authenticity of documents when their authenticity is not seriously in question.

Senator Tuffy raised the issue of tying the proceeds of crime to community development. As my party's finance spokesperson, and given my understanding of the Department of Finance's thinking on the subject, there are good reasons for the Department's reluctance to tie incomes from various sources to particular purposes. However well the legislation works, the proceeds would be insufficient to fund community development. This must be funded from general taxation and, perhaps, the national lottery. I am not sure there is merit in the proposal. While a good case can always be made in a specific instance, if one multiplies that across different Bills, there could be a plethora of ties, which would make the administration of the public finances very difficult.