Vol. 448 No. 7
9 Mr. O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Justice when she will introduce measures pursuant to section 32 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1994, to prevent money laundering; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2700/95]
Section 32 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1994 requires banks and other financial bodies to take certain measures, in particular in relation to the identification of customers, in order to assist in the prevention and detection of money laundering.
In April, 1994 — in advance of the enactment of the 1994 Act — a steering committee was established under the auspices of the Department of Finance to make administrative arrangements for the implementation of the anti-laundering provisions of the legislation with special reference to the preparation of detailed guidelines for the parties who would operate those provisions. The membership of the steering committee includes representatives from the Departments of Finance, Justice and Enterprise and Employment, the Registrar of Friendly Societies, the Garda Síochána, the Central Bank, the Irish Bankers Federation, the Irish Insurance Federation, the Irish Building Societies Association and the Stock Exchange. Its terms of reference are: (1) To define the broad scope of the guidelines required to facilitate the proper implementation of the money laundering provisions of the Criminal Justice Act; (2) to co-ordinate and ensure consistency between the guidelines to be drawn up by the sub-committees; (3) To ratify the guidelines drawn up by the sub-committees before issue; and (4) to review, at not less than six-monthly intervals, the implementation of the guidelines as reported to it by the sub-committees, and to assess their impact.
For the purpose of clarifying the reference to sub-committees in the terms of reference I should explain that a separate sub-committee was set up for each of the major sectors covered by the laundering provisions of the 1994 Act— banking, insurance, etc.
As I have indicated, I have personally raised with my colleague the Minister for Finance my concerns that the relevant section of the Act be brought into force as quickly as possible. I am informed that the committee met again earlier this week and I understand that the current position is that it is close to completing its work on the guidelines and that this is likely to happen in the very near future.
I, of course, remain anxious to make a commencement order bringing section 32 into operation as quickly as possible but Deputies will appreciate that the making of detailed administrative arrangements in this area by the various groups involved inevitably takes time; not least because of the fact that thousands of employees will require detailed training on matters completely new to them. It is vital that if the section is to work successfully it should be introduced effectively and comprehensively from the beginning.
At this stage I anticipate that the commencement order will be made within a matter of a few weeks and that it will allow as brief a period as possible before it comes into operation in order to ensure the proper implementation of the necessary administrative procedures. As I have mentioned, I am doing, and will continue to do, all that I can to have section 32 of the 1994 Act in force at the earliest practicable date.
Before I conclude there is one further point I believe should be made in relation to section 32. While the section is important it should not be lost sight of that it is in fact supplemental to section 31 of the same Act which provides for the offence of money laundering and which came into effect last November. Furthermore, the confiscation provisions of the 1994 Act, and the power to obtain restraint orders to seize and freeze suspected criminal proceeds, are also fully in place. In addition, section 63 of the Act now enables the Garda, on foot of orders made by the District Court, to obtain access to information, including records of bank accounts, for the purpose of an investigation into money laundering or other serious offences. Thus, it is clear that the major parts of the Criminal Justice Act, 1994 which allow the strongest measures to be taken against serious crime are already in operation and I am confident that that will also be the case with section 32 in the very near future.
I should mention also that sections 57 and 58 (2) of the 1994 Act are related to section 32 and will be brought into force at the same time.
Would the Minister accept that there is a possibility, if not a probability, that one of the greatest money-laundering operations in the history of the State may have been facilitated by the Minister not bringing in emergency legislation pursuant to section 32 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1994 in the immediate aftermath of the Brink's Allied robbery? In this respect could she tell the House if she has met the committee drawing up the guidelines, or requested such a meeting?
I thought the Deputy would have understood that the sections of the Act which are in force — they were brought in in November 1994 — are crucial parts of the Act which allow the Garda to proceed to examine bank accounts and to seek a District Court order to do so.
Section 32 is yet a further measure which will mean that banks and financial institutions will have to notify the Garda Síochána if they have suspicions that money being lodged in their institutions is the proceeds of criminal activity. The Act is already in place and what is happening now is the implementation of one section of that Act which will copperfasten the powers of the Garda Síochána. Let me remind the Deputy that the sub-committee established to bring about these new regulations was set up in mid-April before the Bill became an Act and in September the group chaired by the Department of Finance agreed to operate on the basis that the section of the Act would come into operation on 3 April 1995.
Since coming into office I have sought to expedite the bringing into operation of this section ahead of the schedule that the then Government gave the committee. I think the Deputy must recognise that if the section is to be operated effectively thousands of people working in these financial institutions will have to know how to identify the proceeds of crime and be able to pass that information on to the Garda Síochána without fear of prosecution for having broken the confidentiality that must exist between a bank or financial institution and its clients.
I am satisfied that by the time this section is in operation all the powers will be available to the Garda Síochána. Already very strict powers exist for the Garda to do the job the Deputy says they do not have the power to do.
I can only assume that the Minister has not met the committee.
My Department is represented on the sub-committee.
She has not met the sub-committee. Does the Minister accept that there is no power in the Criminal Justice Act, 1994, which would allow the Garda Síochána to freeze moneys in a financial institution which are the subject matter of a criminal investigation? Does she accept in the aftermath of the Brinks-Allied robbery she should have brought in emergency legislation to give the Garda Síochána power to freeze moneys suspected to be the proceeds of crime and that it was her duty to do this in order to ensure that a major laundering operation, the biggest in the history of the State, would not take place?
The type of measures that are required to deal with situations such as the recent Brinks-Allied robbery are those which are provided for in the 1994 Act and are already in operation. They were put into operation by the Deputy's colleague, the then Minister for Justice, who is sitting beside him. They allow for the confiscation of criminal proceeds, to make restraint or freezing orders in advance of a confiscation order and to obtain access to material held by banks and other bodies which might help the Garda Síochána in their investigations. All these measures are in place as we speak.
