Proceeds of Crime and Related Matters Bill 2025: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-15 ============================================================ Joe Conway (IND), Cultural and Educational Panel Notwithstanding that, the phrase "pushing at an open door" comes to mind in relation to this legislation. I am speaking on behalf of the Seanad Independent Group. I think there is a general, across-the-board welcome for the Bill. I am delighted to see the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, here again. He assiduously attends our meetings and all the Senators who I am aware of are deeply appreciative of the fact that he comes so frequently to the Seanad. It is good to see him again. There are a couple of things I might ask the Minister to keep an eye on as this legislation progresses. Four or five months ago, we had a very interesting exchange in the House with the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, in relation to forestry and the possibility of using the forestry and horticulture breakout - I have just realised what a bad choice of word that is - with the Prison Service, based on the exemplar of Rikers Island, where the residents are given an opportunity to study for horticultural qualifications, engaging with the forestry service in various states in the United States. I hope we can progress that. There is initial interest from the Prison Service, which we have been in touch with. The Minister of State is intrigued by the idea. I hope the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, will look kindly on it, if we can move it along. We all know the Prison Service is having great difficulty in containing the numbers. It would be beneficial for society and prisoners in general if the less pernicious prisoners in incarceration could be allowed to develop their skills, make a useful contribution to outside life in the future and make a living professionally. I have been looking at the confiscated assets legislation in Australia, which has a much more ambitious way of redistributing the proceeds of crime. It talks about building up the national DNA base, which is something we could look at here. There is also the whole question of cybercrime and the cyber induction of our younger people. Australia has a policy initiative called ThinkUKnow, which directs its attention to young people through a national campaign to make them aware of how easily they can be drawn into degradation. There is also the area of human trafficking. Of course, those of us who come from a local authority background would love to see the possibility of disbursing some of the moneys to local authorities and NGOs. I welcome the initiative and the proposed legislation. Other colleagues have referred to reducing the time from seven years to two years, which is significantly sensible. I would applaud that. --- 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