Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

The Criminal Assets Bureau has seized in excess of €60 million. I realise the Department is ploughing moneys into crime prevention and so on but any moneys seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau should be additional to those funds and should be put back into the communities which have been ravaged by the scourge of drugs, in particular. Those moneys should go to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform rather than to the Exchequer. I hope the Minister of State will raise that matter with his colleague, the Minister for Finance.

I do not believe any right-thinking person would disagree with the suggestion that this funding should be ploughed back into communities which have been ravaged by drugs and all sorts of criminality. I hope the Minister of State will be able to address this matter. Admittedly, given the seven-year period involved, not all of the €60 million would come on stream at the same time. It is preferable that the money will come on stream year after year, depending on when it is released. Moneys coming in from the proceeds of crime should be put back into those communities.