Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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300. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the amount of assets seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau since its inception in each of the past ten years. [3231/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, responsibility for the identification, tracing, freezing, and ultimate confiscation of criminal assets does not rest with a single body in Ireland and is spread across a number of different agencies and statutory bodies, not all of which are the responsibility of the Department of Justice. These include An Garda Síochána, the Criminal Assets Bureau, Revenue, the Chief State Solicitors Office, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Courts. It should be noted that in some cases, funds seized represent overdue/unpaid personal taxation.

I understand that, in accordance with the provisions of the Proceeds of Crime Acts 1996-2016, the Criminal Justice Act 1994, as amended, and SI No. 418/2011 - Finance (Transfer of DepartmentalAdministration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2011, all confiscations relating to the proceeds of crime are transferred to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to be paid into, or disposed of, for the benefit of the Exchequer. It is from this central fund which the Government draws for expenditure on all necessary public services and investment including for communities affected by crime.

The below table provided by CAB indicates the total value of seizures as requested. As outlined above, there are a number of pieces of legislation that CAB can utilise to seize assets and the values are broken down by currency. CAB have advised that the figures for 2020 are not available at present and will be published in their annual report once finalised.

The tables below set out, in tabular format, taxes collected and social welfare recoveries for the years 2010 – 2019.