I thank all Senators for their contributions to the debate which I found very interesting. I have no doubt we will discuss this issue further on Committee Stage. I thank Senators for the broad support for these measures that is clearly evident. As I said, 20 years ago the Dáil and the Seanad were united in the establishment of the CAB following the very tragic death of Veronica Guerin and it is appropriate to witnness that support today, notwithstanding the various points that have been made by Senators about possible amendments. I will address some of the points made.
On a general point, international co-operation was mentioned a number of times and is certainly very important. A lot of international work is ongoing, to which I want to refer briefly. Garda liaison officers are based in London, Paris, the Hague, Madrid and Lisbon, while the Garda works very closely with both Interpol and Europol. I have visited Europol and have seen the work it is doing. At the recent Justice and Home Affairs Ministers meeting one of the key focuses in tackling not just international criminal activity but also terrorism was on further work on the interoperability of the various databases being used by criminal justice agencies across Europe, a point which was referred to by various Senators. It is very important we make progress in that regard. It costs money, however, and there is a €200 million investment programme in An Garda Síochána in regard to those debates, which is also important. At the last Justice and Home Affairs Ministers meeting I met the Justice Ministers of Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom to discuss dealing with the international face of gangland crime. The point made by Senators on dealing with these issues is very relevant.
The issue of resources was raised. Thankfully, with the improved economic situation we have been able to dedicate more resources to An Garda Síochána. We have had extra recruitment and I hope to be in a position, depending on the budget processes later this year, to accelerate recruitment in Templemore in September in order that we will have above and beyond the 600 gardaí we are already training in the course of this year. Further money is also going into Garda vehicles and the other support systems gardaí need. Of course, all of this is the backdrop to this legislation and the kind of resources needed. There was a period when resources were not being provided because of the economic situation and I believe we are playing catch-up in a number of areas.
I pay tribute to the work of An Garda Síochána. The front-line work in confronting the gangs requires courage and serious commitment, which we are seeing. I was asked about the armed response unit in Dublin. Recruitment is under way; huge interest has been expressed by Garda members in this regard and they are being assessed and trained. Several hundred gardaí applied; there is, therefore, huge interest in the armed support unit, even though it was said at the time there would not be.
To go back to the details of the Bill, a number of Senators spoke about the ring-fencing of funds and said they would like to table amendments. I want to make a number of points for consideration before Committee Stage. It is very unusual to ring-fence money for particular projects or communities as it tends to go into the general Exchequer fund, which is the normal way of dealing with it. There was consultation with the Department of Finance on this point. While I am not saying I would not be prepared to examine it to see what we might be able to do, it raises a number of practical difficulties, not least because of the variation in assets seized from one year to another. Communities might be depending on the assets they receive one year and, although they would want sustainable funding, they might not get it the next year. There are practical issues that need to be considered if we were to ring-fence the funds in this way, primarily given the variable and uncertain nature of the value of the assets seized by the bureau in any given year. In addition, potential delays because of the possibility of legal challenges to court disposal orders could be problematic in the provision of ongoing funding for community programmes. We can tease out these practical difficulties when we are considering the detail of the Bill. There is also an administrative cost. As I said, it is very unusual from the point of view of collecting Exchequer money to ring-fence it to deal with a particular issue. It usually goes into the general fund and is then used according to Government priorities at budget time.
A number of points were made about reasonable grounds, in particular by Senator Lynn Ruane. In legislation the legal concept of "reasonable grounds" is well understood and it obviously means what is objectively reasonable. I make the point that it will eventually be a matter for the High Court to decide on that issue.
The goods seized can be a combination of items, not just one. Safeguards are built in. Senator Victor Boyhan talked about the balances in the Bill and they have been very carefully considered. With the CAB legislation, we have had to be very careful as there have been constitutional challenges, although the legislation has always been upheld.
Senator Gerard P. Craughwell referred to an amendment on the issue of gambling and illegal proceeds. Gambling and money laundering legislation is due to deal with an EU directive, which might be a more appropriate place for the amendment. We can discuss the issue further with the Senator.
I thank Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee for her support for the Bill. She spoke about supporting communities, in particular children who have been affected and about the two recent incidents. I can only join her in condemning the incidents. That is why we have had to bring forward this kind of legislation to deal with the violence that, unfortunately, we have seen in Lusk today and other areas in recent days.
As both incidents are under investigation, I cannot make any comment on the connections or otherwise to earlier murders. We do know, however, that there are gangs which are intent on engaging in a cycle of revenge and retaliation. To tackle them, we need all of the resources of the State, both practical and financial, that we can give to the Garda, as well as stronger legislation.
The CAB has what it calls "asset profilers" around the country. Senator Paul Daly spoke about rural areas. I am very conscious of the need to support communities across the country in their efforts to deal with crime. We have, for example, doubled the funding for Macra na Feirme for the local text messaging scheme. Community involvement is very important in dealing with local criminal activity. Equally, the asset profilers in the CAB are very often members of An Garda Síochána who have good information on the situations about which the Senator talked where there is drug dealing. They report back to the CAB and, where possible, there is an investigation and a prosecution. This has been very helpful across the country in terms of the success of the CAB.
What I am presenting in the legislation is very much in line with the idea of having a mini-CAB which is more local. Communities have stated to us that they want to see people who are dealing in drugs locally, perhaps in smaller amounts than the bigger international players, interrupted. This is very important from the point of view of maintaining the morale of the community. Where people are flaunting assets, we must be in a position to deal with them.
Senator Ivana Bacik spoke about an amendment she might bring forward. We would have to look at it very carefully. As she is well aware, the reason for inserting the period of 21 days is to allow the CAB to gather evidence to see if it can pursue its intention to confiscate the assets. We will certainly examine any amendment she will bring forward, but it might be problematic.
I will conclude on that note. I thank all of the Senators who contributed to the debate and expressed their support for these measures. I am very pleased that there is support across the House for this legislation.