LIGHT TOUCH regulation and totally inadequate laws dealing with white-collar crime have contributed to the current economic mess. Fine Gael and the Labour Party criticised the slow pace of investigation into banking and other irregularities while in opposition and their programme for government promised new legislation within 100 days. The Criminal Justice Bill, 2011, comes before the Dáil today.
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has spoken of the impunity of white-collar criminals and said the Government is determined to restore the public’s faith in the legal system and ensure that action is taken against them. Such an initiative is very important arising from the debts taxpayers will be forced to shoulder following the collapse of the banking and construction sectors. Fianna Fáil’s support for these legal measures is also important because the Bill is now likely to become law before the summer recess.
The measures proposed are designed to facilitate investigations into banking and finance, company law, money laundering, fraud, corruption and cyber crime. In future, failure to report a relevant offence to the Garda may be punishable by a fine or by five years imprisonment. The Garda may apply to the District Court to require persons to answer questions and supply information. The District Court may order that large volumes of documents be indexed and categorised and claims of legal privilege for documentation may be challenged there. In addition, the 24-hour period for questioning suspects may be broken into segments to facilitate an effective investigation.
These are important changes in view of the manner in which suspects have evaded prosecution. Practices like “snowing”, whereby investigators are presented with enormous amounts of unsorted material that generate significant difficulties and long delays, will be addressed. And claims of legal privilege for documentation can be more easily challenged. But nobody should be under the impression that the Bill will resolve all impediments. Wealthy individuals and clever barristers will see to that. But the legislation does represent a step forward.
Judges of the Commercial Court have been critical of long delays involving wrongdoing at Anglo Irish Bank and of the failure to prosecute certain individuals who admitted to criminal acts in civil courts. But when the major banks can return millions of euro of ATM cash to customers and describe its retention for years as “a mistake”, what hope is there for ethical accountability?