THERE was a general welcome for the Criminal Assets Bureau Bill. The Minister for Finance, "Mr Quinn, said the bureau would be headed by a Garda chief superintendent and its objective would be to track and target the assets of criminals or suspected criminals.
It was being set up following a detailed review by a special working group of officials from the Departments of Justice, Finance, Social Welfare, the Revenue Commissioners and senior Garda officers.
The Bill would allow the team of officials dealing with the disclosure and exchange of information between those departments to become operational without waiting for the passage of the Bill.
The setting up of the bureau on a statutory basis was "a clear manifestation of the Government's determination to defeat the crime bosses".
The bureau would be an operational body with 30 staff or more made up of gardai and expert civil servants from the Revenue Commissioners, including Customs and Excise, the Department of Social Welfare and any other specialists recruited as necessary.
There had been a clear call from many quarters for the forces of the State to be better co-ordinated to combat crime. The Labour Party proposed the establishment of a special agency with specific powers to take decisive action against professional criminals and drug barons. The three Government parties were fully in favour of the Bill.
"For too long, many ordinary people whose families or community were ravaged by the havoc caused by drug abuse perceived that known or suspected criminals enjoyed a life style which was not based upon any real job or business.
"They and their own families appeared to enjoy the rich proceeds of crime and drug dealing with apparent impunity from the law. They appeared to untouchable. This Bill will end that."
From now on, the families, friends and partners of criminals would not be able to hide behind their own names while enjoying the proceeds, property, assets and money which the criminals obtained illegally?.
All such assets would be capable of confiscation if they could be proved to be connected to criminal activity.
Mr Charlie McCreevy, Fianna Fail spokesman on finance, said he favoured the setting up of the bureau because there should be a unified approach to tackling crime. The lack of coordination between State agencies and even within some agencies, including the Garda, the Revenue and the Department of Social Welfare, was legendary.
Mr Michael McDowell, PD spokesman on finance, welcomed the Bill but said the tax amnesty, which prohibited the investigation of past taxes other than on the basis that the amount was not truly stated, bored a serious hole in it.
Mr Eric Byrne (DL, Dublin South Central) described the Bill as a milestone in the development of the criminal justice system. Organised crime generated huge amounts of cash and stolen property which had to be laundered. That was where organised crime should be most vulnerable.
One of the conditions of the tax amnesty was that the person signed a declaration that no part of the declared income arose from unlawful sources. On the committee stage, he would be seeking information as to the number of such declarations which had been challenged and he hoped the new bureau would be given access to the relevant information.
The so called "crime bosses" could rarely be directly linked with the execution of crime. "They can, however, be linked with the enormous profits generated by their crimes."