Proceeds of Crime and Related Matters Bill 2025: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-15 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South I thank all Senators for their contributions and, more importantly, for their support. It is my job to be here when I am bringing legislation through the Houses, so it is important that I am here. I have great support from my two Ministers of State, Deputies Colm Brophy and Niall Collins. It is a fundamental requirement for all the members of the Government to attend the Houses of the Oireachtas because they are the lawmaking entity under the Constitution. I will deal with some of the very useful contributions that have been made. I agree with Senator Gallagher when he says that criminal convictions can be very hard to secure. We see the difficulty that gardaí have to go through during investigations, and it can take time for them to happen. I welcome the fact that this legislation recognises that civil forfeiture is sometimes the way to go, as opposed to circumstances where a criminal conviction cannot be secured against the person who is the brains behind the crime. I thank Senator Boyhan for his contribution. It is great to hear so many Senators being in favour of the legislation. Again, it is illustrative of the support that exists for An Garda Síochána that the money going back from CAB into the community is representative of the fact that the criminal proceeds are made at the outset from the people of that community. Senator Keogan spoke about crypto assets. As I mentioned in my contribution, crypto assets will be dealt with on Committee Stage, the amending stage in the Seanad. It is important that we cover crypto assets. I thank Senator Kelleher for what he said about CAB. It is important that CAB is given public support, as it has been. It was very much an innovative solution when it was introduced nearly 30 years ago. Senator Martin Conway also mentioned crypto assets. As I have indicated, this is very important, and amendments will be made in respect of that. I welcome Senator McCormack's support. Lifestyle is being challenged. CAB will go after lower amounts of the proceeds of criminal activity, so it is not limited to the large criminals. If Members look at the annual report of CAB, which reports to me, they will see the type of assets it has seized. They are very much everyday assets that are flaunted by criminals in their use of the proceeds of crime. I am sorry for interrupting Senator Joe Conway's business in the dining room, but I hear what he said about the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan. I will speak to him in respect of that, and get some further information from him. --- 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