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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 15 Oct 1996

Vol. 470 No. 1

Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Drugs Enforcement Agency.

Éamon Ó Cuív

Ceist:

40 Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Justice the plans, if any, she has to establish a national drugs enforcement agency. [18439/96]

The question of setting up a drugs enforcement agency as an entity separate from, and independent of, existing law enforcement agencies was considered in a special report on drugs law enforcement drawn up by my Department in 1994. That report concluded that the likely effect of introducing a DEA-type agency on the lines operated, for example, in the United States would be to complicate the drugs law enforcement response in this jurisdiction. It said that the best results would be obtained by maximising the effectiveness of co-operation and co-ordination between existing agencies. I remain satisfied that the conclusions of the report are sound. Incidentally, these conclusions were accepted by my predecessor, Deputy Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

The Deputy will be aware of the many initiatives taken by me, with the approval of the Government, to facilitate that co-ordinated response. There are three in particular I want to mention. The first is the establishment of the national drugs unit arising from this co-operation.

Second, in July 1995 I arranged that a memorandum of understanding be drawn up and agreed by the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners and the Garda Commissioner. The purpose of the memorandum was to facilitate maximum co-operation in tackling drug trafficking. It was signed by both sides earlier this year and was formally endorsed by the Minister for Finance and myself. This memorandum commits both services to a policy of full co-operation. It specifically provides for the establishment for special operations of a joint task force comprising representatives of the Garda, Customs and Excise and the Naval Service, as required. The Deputy will be aware of recent successes achieved through this cooperative effort.

Third, there has been the setting up of the Criminal Assets Bureau on an informal basis in August this year. Within a few days it will be placed on a statutory footing. This new body is intended to provide a forceful mechanism for concerted co-operation between State agencies, namely, the Garda, Revenue and Social Welfare, in dealing with drug-related crime. The provisions of the Criminal Assets Bureau Act, 1996, will ensure that the bureau can operate with maximum effect. It will, of course, also be facilitated by the provisions of the Proceeds of Crime Act, 1996, passed in July this year.

I am satisfied that with the structures now in place to tackle drug trafficking, the establishment of a DEA on the US model is not necessary.

Can the Minister advise the House how she came to the conclusion that a drugs enforcement agency is not necessary? Would she not accept that her reply today indicates the approach is fragmented? It was certainly successful in some instances, and the authorities are to be warmly congratulated in that respect, but would the Minister not accept that the best way of having a co-ordinated approach to the fight against drug trafficking is to have a national drugs enforcement agency?

Given that the Government stated that the fight against drugs would be one of its most important objectives on assuming the Presidency of the EU, could the Minister also advise the House whether there has been any progress in setting up a European coastguard service to tackle drug trafficking?

In the United States a drugs enforcement agency was set up to unify a plethora of law enforcement agencies. We have only one police force. There was, therefore, no need to bring together a number of agencies charged with drugs law enforcement. Such an agency would not necessarily be suited to this country where we have a single unified police force. My aim, and that of my colleague, the Minister for Finance, has been to get the agencies that need to work together to work with the Garda Síochána in tackling the kind of crimes that have become so prevalent in this society. I am satisfied that we do not need a stand-alone police force known as a drugs enforcement agency. A European coastguard service is a different question. I do not have information on it. Suffice to say that that issue has been raised at European level and is under discussion, but a number of countries have serious reservations about it. During my Council meeting with Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs I raised the issue of a more unified approach to how individual countries deal with things like searching vessels that land on their coasts. It would be appropriate for countries to standardise their methods of dealing with drug trafficking and drug offences and ships that might be carrying drugs. We could then be sure that the ship that landed in Cork and was successfully searched would have been subject to the same kind of search had it gone on to Spain, Portugal or Rotterdam.

I appreciate the Minister's efforts to deal with the drugs problem. However, the Criminal Assets Bureau is restricted to dealing with assets, a worthwhile task in itself. The national drugs unit has traditionally proved to be ineffective in that it merely replaced the central drugs unit which had not been effective. A number of the so-called drugs barons have recently moved to Amsterdam and to England. The major drugs barons, the heroin barons who have destroyed the centre of Dublin in particular, remain untouched, with one or two exceptions. Clearly there is a need for an initiative, such as a national drugs agency, to deal with these people in an effective and co-ordinated way.

The Criminal Assets Bureau is only about six weeks old and statutorily not even two days old. It does more than just deal with assets. Information gathered in the course of investigations can be passed on and used to gain convictions in other crimes that come to light in the course of the investigations. The bureau is not as tightly focused or targeted as the Deputy implies. I am satisfied that the bureau is something this country has needed for a very long time. I have to give credit to the Deputy who, for many years, demanded that the agencies be brought together. I would ask him to give it time. It is already working. It is already successful and will continue to be so.

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