Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

It was decided not to have a corruption assets bureau and that the Criminal Assets Bureau was the right body for that task. The Senator inquired whether there was any particular conduct that gave rise to what is being proposed here. If one examines the report of the Tribunal of Inquiry into Certain Planning Matters and Payments by Mr. Justice Flood, there was one obvious example of conduct which this particular provision would apply to in an appropriate case. Clearly, it is a perspective, in effect, but the purpose of a provision such as this is to give far greater legal clarity to the position of the bureau and that of the person who has been unjustly enriched as a result of corrupt conduct. It gives a clear remedy, which allows the value to be recouped by the Minister for Finance or another person. While it might have been possible to construct this proposal as a general matter of civil obligation, without enactment, clearly, spelling it out in statutory black and white enormously strengthens the capacity of the law to deal with this type of conduct. The Minister took considerable legal and constitutional advice before finally settling on the formula which I am now introducing to the House.