Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

We on this side of the House are pleased that the Government has brought forward, relatively quickly, a Bill which was conceived by the former Minister, Dermot Ahern, who took a tough approach to crime and was always willing to look at new ways of dealing with it. It is a credit to the current Minister, Deputy Shatter, that he has come forward with the same type of idealism and willingness to bring forward new measures that will not always get universal support. However, there is much support on this issue because of the political and economic circumstances in which we find ourselves. I have not heard of any opposition to the Bill but I am sure there is some. However, it is not as noticeable as with other pieces of legislation in the crime area. While this is new legislation, it was put forward by the previous Government and much of the work was done by the former Minister.

The Bill reflects much of the frustration expressed by all of us over the past number of years at the slow pace of the investigation into Anglo Irish Bank and other banks by the Garda and of the efforts being made at that level and in the offices of the prosecutors. Those frustrations still exist. Fianna Fáil was accused of slowing up the investigation, but members of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party were baying for the blood of these bankers because we knew the political ramifications of not dealing with the issue. I suggest to the Minister that more pressure should be put on the Garda and the prosecutors, without threatening or compromising their independence. This is important, particularly if there is a prospect of serious charges being brought or convictions being obtained. The Minister knows he must be very measured in that regard. The situation is frustrating not only for the Minister but for the whole country in that very little has happened. I hope this legislation will seek to address that.

The legislation is not the solution to the problem as these are complicated crimes. Many of the people who engaged in what I believe was a criminal enterprise were probably so foolish, dull or stupid in themselves they did not realise they were committing crimes. However, that is no excuse. Ignorance of the law is no excuse and will not be allowed to be an excuse for these bankers or anyone else who facilitated the crimes that took place in banks that helped to bring economic destruction to this country.

We welcome this Bill. I cannot accuse the Government of delaying the Bill, but other legislation was given greater priority, including that dealing with the Smithwick tribunal. That legislation was brought forward urgently. We are a bit slower with this. Fianna Fáil would have been happy to facilitate even earlier passage of this legislation. I am not being critical, but I believe the Bill should have been the first priority for the Government. It was published some time in May and much of the work had been done before then. It is now the end of July. We would not have criticised a guillotine on important legislation such as this to get it into place, because it was delayed by the general election. That is the way things happen.

The former Minister used to say there was a lot of legislation sitting on the shelves in the Department and I used encourage him to bring forward legislation that would show a tough approach to crime and send a message to the community. I know the Minister is bringing forward the community service Bill today, but we are also looking forward to the forensic evidence and the DNA database Bill. We support this Bill and will not put forward amendments because we want to be unambiguous in our support. However, as much pressure as possible must be put on the people prosecuting and investigating these crimes. While they are independent, they must also be answerable to a public that is rightly very angry. We can only hope that the provisions of this Bill will be more effective than previous Bills we have put in place which, though used, have not delivered results, such as the gangland legislation passed a number of years ago. That legislation has been used, but I am unsure it has produced any results, which is disappointing.

We wish the Bill a safe and quick passage.