Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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232. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the amount of money and assets seized as a result of drug-related crime in each of the years 2012 to 2018 and to date in 2019; the amount from these seizures given to community projects and similar in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24902/19]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has a robust legislative framework in place allowing for the freezing, seizure and confiscation of assets that are derived from criminal conduct. Responsibility for the identification, tracing, freezing, and ultimate confiscation of criminal assets does not rest with a single body in Ireland and is, instead, spread across a number of different agencies and statutory bodies, not all of which are the responsibility of the Department of Justice and Equality. These include An Garda Síochána, the Criminal Assets Bureau, Revenue, the Chief State Solicitors Office, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Courts.

The statistics requested regarding the amount of money and assets seized by the various bodies involved, broken down and categorised specifically as originating from drug-related crime, from 2012 to the present are, unfortunately, not readily available. Annual reports, such as that of the Criminal Assets Bureau (available at ), do provide useful statistics and general information on the forfeiture and confiscation of criminal assets and activities in that regard.

In accordance with the provisions of the Proceeds of Crime Acts 1996-2016, the Criminal Justice Act 1994, as amended, and related statutes, all confiscations relating to the proceeds of crime are transferred to the Minister for Finance to be paid into, or disposed of, for the benefit of the Exchequer.