Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht bheith i láthair leis an rún seo a chur os ár gcomhair. I thank the Minister of State for being here. We have had a very sincere and reflective series of contributions in the Seanad over the course of discussions around these matters. One common theme among the Members and across the Seanad is that we want to empower the Garda. We want to give it the powers to tackle these criminal gangs. We want to strengthen its ability to seize assets. Sinn Féin will be supporting this motion, as it seeks to do that.

One aspect I have been keen to highlight, nuance and articulate during the course of these discussions has been the critical need as this legislation progresses, and hopefully it achieves what it sets out to, to ensure that it is human rights compliant. We need to take account of international best practice and to look 100 miles up the road to some of the successes the Police Service of Northern Ireland and other agencies in the North have been able to achieve through seizing criminal assets and reinvesting them back into the communities. As Senator Clifford-Lee outlined, we need to invest in our people. We need to invest in the communities that are suffering most as a result of these criminal gangs who, unfortunately for some considerable time, have had a stranglehold over many of them.

As political activists and public representatives we know, and are of, these communities, and we have been greatly privileged over the years to represent them. Those communities are not looking for handouts, they are not looking to be taken by the hand but they need to be supported. They need to be enfranchised and empowered to enable them to also play a central role because they want their communities back. They want their communities and their families to be safe. It is also a matter of how we empower them to be able to work alongside all the agencies in doing exactly that. Part of that can be directly reinvesting these assets back into those communities, not as any kind of additional top-up or there being any kind of misgivings around that, but we should do it in a way that is considerate and is compliant with best practice.

Sinn Féin supports the moves to allow the Garda to seize the sums at the limit of €1,000, and there should be no doubt that we support this element. We support the motion.