A bilateral co-operation treaty signed in Washington yesterday between the United States and Ireland will help in the war against organised crime, the Minister for Justice said.
The signing of a bilateral Legal Assistance Treaty in Criminal Matters between the United States and the Republic was the last to be signed by the outgoing US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright.
The Minister, Mr O'Donoghue, signed on behalf of Ireland. Later he said there had been about 40 requests for mutual assistance between the two countries in recent years, including an FBI investigation into alleged fake aircraft parts in Galway last year. Sometimes there were difficulties over documentation and information.
Mr O'Donoghue said: "The treaty recognises that organised crime knows no boundaries. A special effort is required between the two countries to defeat these criminals and to make them pay for their crimes."
Ms Albright said she was delighted that her last treaty in office was with a state which was close to the outgoing administration through its involvement in the peace process. Ireland, which abolished the death penalty in 1990, does not extradite people to the United States if there is a risk of the death penalty being imposed. That position will continue.
The main tradition case between the two countries in recent years concerned Ms Beth Ann Carpenter, who challenged her extradition on the grounds that the US maintained the death penalty. It is alleged she and her lover paid a hit man $10,000 to kill her brother-in-law in March 1994.
She withdrew her challenge and was returned to custody in Connecticut in June 1999, after the US authorities undertook that if convicted she would not face the death penalty.
She was recently released on bail after three years in custody. Her trial is to take place this year.
The bilateral treaty will "allow both Ireland and the United States to set out and provide for their needs and requirements in more detail than would usually be possible in the context of multilateral instruments".