Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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In November 2015, the British and Irish Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive agreed a series of measures in the agreement A Fresh Start, The Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan, as part of a concerted and enhanced effort to tackle organised and cross jurisdictional crime. These measures included the creation of a Joint Agency Task Force.

This Task Force is led by senior officers from An Garda Síochána, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Revenue Commissioners and HM Revenue and Customs.  A number of other organisations, including the National Crime Agency and the Criminal Assets Bureau are also involved in operational activity. The objective of the Task Force is to build on existing law enforcement frameworks and to increase the collective effectiveness of operational law enforcement actions.

The Strategic Oversight Group of the Task Force is chaired jointly at senior management level by the two police services in order to provide strong strategic direction and oversight to front-line operational activities.  This group also includes senior revenue and other personnel from relevant agencies.

Following the establishment of the Strategic Oversight Group, a Cross Border Strategic Assessment was conducted with input from the multi-agency partners to review the extent and impact of organised crime. 

Senior officers from An Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland jointly chair the Task Force Operations Co-ordination Group which is bringing forward the operation actions in six priority areas that have been the focus of the work of the task force: Rural Crime; Immigration-related Crime; Excise Fraud; Drugs; Financial Crime, and Human Trafficking.  These priorities are, of course, kept under review.  There has been very considerable operational activity, with a variety of different operations undertaken across all of the priority areas since the establishment of the Task Force. 

Under the provisions of the Agreement, a report of the work of the Task Force is provided by the Strategic Oversight Group to the six monthly meetings of Justice Ministers in the framework of the Intergovernmental Agreement on Co-operation on Criminal Justice Matters.  Two such reports covering the first twelve months of the operation of the Task Force have been prepared and submitted to the two Justice Ministers over the course of 2016.

While there has been a hiatus in the normal reporting arrangements given the current impasse in the Northern Ireland institutions, the Deputy will be reassured to note that this has not impacted on the operational work of the Task Force which maintains its focus on tackling serious cross-Border crime.