Proceeds of Crime and Related Matters Bill 2025: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-15 ============================================================ Maria McCormack (SF), Labour Panel I welcome the Aire. Sinn Féin welcomes the Bill and the measures contained in it. We will support anything that makes it harder for criminals to profit from their actions and easier for the State to take back assets. Reducing the term between an interim and final disposal order, strengthening the ability to freeze funds and limiting the ability to delay proceedings are all positive steps. For over 15 years, Sinn Féin has argued that proceeds of crime should be directed back into communities. In 2021, my colleagues, Deputies Mark Ward and Ruairí Ó Murchú, introduced legislation to ensure that these funds go directly into our drug task forces, youth clubs and family centres. We are, therefore, glad to see the setting up of the Government's community safety fund. While the community safety fund is a step in the right direction, a fund of €4 million simply does not match the scale of the problem, and we have to look at that. In communities across the country, groups are doing incredible work but they are on shoestring budgets. The funds recovered from proceeds of crime should be invested directly back into the communities that have been most impacted by crime - in youth services, family supports and addiction and recovery services. We know the reality on the ground. Where there is deprivation, organised crime takes hold. Where people feel left behind, addiction and exploitation follow, and criminals know exactly where to go to take advantage of that. That is why community investment is essential here. I see great work being done every single day in County Laois by groups such as the ARC Project recovery centre in Portlaoise, which supports people in recovery, helping them rebuild their lives and giving real hope back to individuals and families. This work is absolutely priceless but, too often, it is underfunded. These are the groups for which we need to look at matching funding and bringing funding to them. Community groups and services are asking for something very simple, namely, proper resources and support, and that the Government will listen and be a voice for them. We also need to ensure that the funding goes exactly where it is needed most. This means we have to link it to the areas of deprivation, not just to who can write the best applications. I hope we can find a way of getting funding directly into the communities that need it most because the communities that have suffered most from crime must be the ones that benefit from the proceeds of crime. We also need to look at prevention in a more serious way. There is still not enough being done to break the cycle. We are not doing enough to challenge the so-called lifestyle that draws young people into criminal activity and we are not doing enough to intervene early. That is why Sinn Féin has called for the exploration of the idea of having a mini CAB to target low-level criminality and the vision mismatch between income and lifestyle. When this Bill was introduced in the Dáil, my colleague, Deputy Mark Ward, brought forward an amendment based on a recommendation from the justice committee, which stated that the committee recommends further examination of the use of funds recovered from proceeds of crime and how such funds could be invested. Through the provision of preventative supports within communities, that recommendation made sense then and it makes more sense now. We really have to look at getting in there, nipping this in the bud at the beginning. We need to stop making this lifestyle so attractive to youngsters in these deprived areas. I urge the Minister to look at whether there is more we can do here. I understand we need to be serious about tackling crime and that the Minister has a massive focus on this issue. This is an area we have to take another look at. Across the country, there are communities full of decent, hard-working people but they are fed up. They are fed up with gangs, drugs and seeing young people pulled into a life that leads nowhere. These communities are not giving up, however. They are stepping up and they deserve to be heard by this Government when they cry out for more resources and multi-annual funding so they can plan ahead. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. 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