Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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198. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the breakdown of the assets and moneys sized by the Criminal Assets Bureau, by county, between 2016 and 2021, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8787/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) is a multi-agency statutory body established under the Criminal Assets Bureau Act, 1996. The Bureau has staff drawn from An Garda Síochána, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners (including Customs), the Department of Social Protection and my Department.

The Bureau’s remit is to target assets, wherever situated, which derive or are suspected to derive, directly or indirectly, from criminal conduct. Since its inception, the Bureau has been at the forefront of fighting organised crime in this jurisdiction – disrupting the activities of criminal gangs through the removal of their ill-gotten gains - and has been recognised as a world leader in asset investigations, tracing and forfeiture.

The Bureau works closely with Gardaí and all law enforcement agencies at national and international levels. The Proceeds of Crime (Amendment) Act 2005 makes provision for the Bureau to seize assets that were generated in foreign jurisdictions. This Act enables the Bureau to cooperate fully with other international asset recovery agencies.

I am advised by the Bureau that figures for 2021 are not yet available pending publication of the CAB Annual Report for 2021. Similarly, figures to date in 2022 are currently unavailable. For the Deputy's information, the CAB Annual Reports are available to view at the following link:

www.cab.ie/annual-reports/

The table below, provided by CAB from their published Annual Reports, indicates the total value of assets and cash seized by the Bureau for the years 2016-2020. CAB have confirmed that seizures are not recorded geographically and therefore a breakdown by county is not available.

The large increase in 2019 is due to the granting of a freezing order over cryptocurrency to the value of €53,023,140.

The table below sets out the total monies returned to the Exchequer under Section 4(1) & 4A of the Proceeds of Crime Act 1996. Also included are taxes collected and social welfare recoveries for the years 2016 – 2020 which are remitted to the Exchequer via the Office of the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection.