Written answers

Thursday, 1 November 2007

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform

Criminal Assets Bureau

5:00 pm

Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 182: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, further to his reply to Parliamentary Question No. 334 of 17 October 2007 and the statement in the CAB Annual Report that the CAB in its first decade received High Court Orders to seize €90 million worth of illegal assets, the reason only €5 million approximately was returned to the Exchequer in the same period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26748/07]

Photo of Brian Lenihan JnrBrian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The difference with regard to the amount of the value of the assets seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau to date and the amount which has been returned to the Exchequer to date is explained by the following.

The Criminal Assets Bureau operates under the Proceeds of Crime Act, 1996. Under this legislation, monies or property frozen pursuant to Section 2 or 3 of the Act remain frozen for a period of at least seven years and therefore the first applications under section 4 of the Act for "disposal orders" of the assets which have been seized by the Bureau could not come before the courts until 2004.

The only exception to this minimum seven year waiting period is whereby all relevant parties agree to the application of a section 4a order which allows for a disposal order to be made by the High Court within the seven year period with the consent of all parties. These consent provisions only came into force in 2005 under the Proceeds of Crime (Amendment) Act of that year.

As the Deputy will appreciate, no monies or property frozen by the Criminal Assets Bureau can be forwarded to the Exchequer until a final decision on such assets has been determined by the courts although, of course, the persons involved are deprived of such monies.

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