Proceeds of Crime and Related Matters Bill 2025: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-15
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Martin Conway (IND), Administrative Panel

I, too, welcome the Minister to the House. He is a very positive contributor as a Minister. If only every other Minister were. I know it has been a difficult week, but that is politics and the joys and challenges of being in government. I know the Minister understands that and stands up to the plate when it comes to that.
I consider this legislation is evolving in the sense that proceeds of crime and the mechanisms that criminal gangs use are constantly evolving and changing. We need to evolve and change our legislative framework to take account of that. Back in 1996, when Veronica Guerin was killed, I remember where I was. I was working in my father's shop in County Clare and a customer told me what had happened. Veronica Guerin had been in the news a lot prior to that because there had been a couple of attempts and threats on her. The sense of revulsion at the time created a major incident in government, which was responded to quickly by Nora Owen, who established the Criminal Assets Bureau. It was pioneering at the time and has proven to be one of the most effective tools we have in this country against organised crime.
If you take away their wealth and what they cause crime for, you deal them a body blow. That is what the legislation has done.
I was in the Chamber in 2016 when we amended the Act introduced in the mid-1990s. At that time, CAB could seize property valued at €13,000 and over. The case made at the time by the Minister and Senators, and the view among the public, was that CAB was dealing with the upper echelons of crime. As we know, there are small crime gangs the length and breadth of the country that wreak havoc in communities. Reducing the threshold from €13,000 to €5,000, as was done in 2016, made a significant difference to the reach and relevance of CAB for ordinary communities around the country. As I have said previously, CAB has been emulated by other jurisdictions because they have seen the success it has had.
What impresses me about this legislation is that it is evolving. It introduces the whole area of crypto and reduces from seven years to two years the wait time for disposing of assets seized as a result of organised crime. That moves and modernising the law. The cautiousness of previous Bills is no longer necessary because CAB is now seen as a standard pillar of our justice system. For this reason, we need to be a bit liberal in pushing the boat out on what can be done. I agree that reducing the time to dispose of an asset from seven years to two years is appropriate because the values of assets can go up or down. We may as well deal with them in real time where possible.
If CAB requires the Oireachtas to continue amending the legislation to take account of developing trends, structures, systems and so on, and if we need to take a broad discretionary approach in regard to facilitating CAB in what it does so well, the Houses should not be found wanting in equipping it. Ireland was the standard-bearer in the nineties and early noughties in regard to proceeds of crime legislation. We should continue to be the flag-bearer in ensuring our legislation is effective, focused and meaningful and that we change it in real time to the greatest extent possible. I am glad there is support throughout the House for this very sensible, prudent and effective legislation.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-15