Check Against Delivery
Seanad Commencement Matter – Senator James Heffernan
Reply by Minister Simon Harris TD on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald TD
28 January 2015
I am speaking on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality who is unable to be present here today due to other business.
The Minister has asked me to thank the Senator for raising this very important issue.
Organised crime activity has serious consequences for the well being of our communities and, more broadly, for the well being and proper functioning of society.
It affects all sections in society – whether it is the community struggling with the affects of drug misuse and the violence it brings with it; the businesses undermined by the black market economy and the workers who have lost their jobs because legitimate businesses are failing; or the public services that have to be curtailed because taxes and duties are avoided.
The Minister has asked me to assure the House of the continued commitment of An Garda Síochána to tackling organised criminality in all of its guises.
An Garda Síochána continues to vigorously tackle organised crime through a range of activities designed to disrupt and dismantle the operations of criminal organisations. This involves targeting serious criminals and organised criminal groups on a number of fronts, including through the use of focused intelligence led operations by specialist units including the Organised Crime Unit, the Garda National Drugs Unit, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the work of the Criminal Assets Bureau.
In addition, An Garda Síochána has strong and strategic partnerships in place at national and international level in targeting cross border criminality and transnational criminal groupings.
The Minister has asked me to assure the House that this approach is yielding results and that we are continuing to see Garda successes in tackling organised criminal activity both at home and abroad.
For example, arising from this work drug seizures valued at approximately €62m were made by An Garda Síochána during 2014. This does not include the well publicised joint operation involving An Garda Síochána, Revenue Customs Service and the Naval Service which led to the interception of a yacht off Ireland’s south west coast last September containing cocaine with an estimated street value at that time of over €70 million. This particular operation reflects the investment made by those agencies in building strong and strategic partnerships at international level, including those formed as part of Ireland’s participation in the Maritime Analysis and Operational Centre for Narcotics based in Lisbon.
More recently, as part of an ongoing operation earlier this month in the North Dublin area drugs were seized with an estimated value of just under €0.5m.
Such drug seizures play a critical role in disrupting the ability of organised crime groups to carry on their illegal activities.
Of course, these are just some examples of the work of An Garda Síochána in what is an ongoing effort.
In addition, the legislation underpinning the work of An Garda Síochána is being kept under review so as to ensure that the necessary investigative tools are at the disposal of Gardaí. Most recently, the enactment of the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Act 2014, which provides for the establishment and operation of the DNA database, has been a very significant development and considerably enhances the investigative tools to be made available to An Garda Síochána.
In concluding, I would like to assure the House on behalf of the Minister of the continued commitment of An Garda Síochána, and this Government, to tackling organised crime and that they can be assured of the full support of the Government in this regard.
ENDS