Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I will do what I always have done in that regard.

Like other Members, I wonder what was the reason for the delay with this legislation which should have been introduced in 2007 or 2008 at the latest. Why was there such a delay in producing the Bill? As has been said, it consolidates our money laundering legislation in a single statute. That was needed and I welcome it.

Like Senator Keaveney, I have often spoken about the activities of subversive organisations in the State and the threat they continue to pose. I welcome the Minister's suggestion in the past week that the threat is as high now as it has been in the past 30 years. I have been saying as much in the House in the past six months. These so-called republican organisations are actively recruiting in many counties. They approach young people whose families have never been involved in such activity. There is no question that they are recruiting. Several Members are aware of their recruitment efforts which must be tackled.

Every resource must be given to the Garda to build intelligence on these organisations to ensure we can put a lid on them. They are a threat to the institutions of the State and the hard-fought for peace secured on the island. We all hope we will be able to live in peace with our neighbours in Northern Ireland for a long time to come, without the threat of terrorism and the activities we witnessed for such a long period. However, recently we have again witnessed subversives in action with the attacks on the barracks in Newry and members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI. Any right thinking person will hope we can deal with the subversives who pose such a threat to the State. Without a home or haven for the ill-gotten gains of criminals, they would not exist. The type of co-operation on a European and world basis which we are discussing is a necessity to tackle the type of crime and criminals we are discussing. Do we have the necessary resources? I listened with interest to Senator Keaveney. We have only two scanners for ports which is totally inadequate to detect contraband, cigarettes and other, more sinister things coming into the country in containers. The issue of scanners should be addressed. There should be greater resources for the Garda, the Defence Forces and Customs.

The punishments and penalties must fit the crime, which is not the case. Senator Keaveney also mentioned this. One sometimes wonders about the penalties administered to people who commit these crimes and smuggle cigarettes and other things into the country. It is something which will have to be tackled in legislation. We will have to have proper penalties for these types of crimes because we are not giving enough attention to them. Smuggling and money laundering are all part of criminal activity in this country and throughout Europe.

I commend this very good Bill. It is late in coming but we welcome its provisions. Those of us on this side of the House will support anything which will prevent money laundering and tackle the criminality which is rife in this country. I will not detain the Minister of State nor resort to what the Leader of the House said I should do, namely, dealing with all the other matters to which I referred. We will support the Bill. We understand the Government will table a number of amendments on Committee Stage and we will be interested to see what they are. We will reserve our comments on those and wait to see what the Government has in mind.