ONE OF the most significant measures to come before the Dail yesterday was legislation which provided for the setting up of a Criminal Assets Bureau.
The bureau is a response to years of difficulties between the Garda and the Revenue, who have seemed unable to co operate effectively to identify and tax or seize the assets of major criminals.
Senior gardai had become frustrated, believing that Revenue was not playing its part in the fight against crime. Revenue officials believed it was up to the Clarda to first secure convictions against the drug barons.
The new bureau seeks to have selected gardai and Revenue officers working together in a flexible environment - where inter agency rivalry will be forgotten and precise job descriptions will take second place to the common purpose of depriving major criminals of their wealth.
A number of Social Welfare officials will also join the unit of 30 to 40 people. This follows the realisation that even the wealthiest drug dealers usually avail of all social welfare benefits, such as unemployment assistance and rent allowances.
A Garda chief superintendent will head the unit. The former head of the Garda fraud squad, Chief Supt Fachtna Murphy is tipped for the position. The "Bureau Legal Officer" is likely to be Mr Barry Galvin, the Cork State Solicitor who has been a vocal critic of successive governments' failure to combat drug trafficking. Mr Galvin is understood to have been offered the job and to have responded favourably, although negotiations about details were continuing.
The legislation provides for bureau members to retain their anonymity in legal proceedings. They can avoid putting their names to court documents, and can give evidence from behind a screen in court, so only the judge can see their faces.
This measure is a recognition by the Government that personal intimidation can affect how officials investigate the business of major criminals. The new law creates an offence of intimidation, including threats against the bureau officials' families.
Although created by Department of Finance legislation, the bureau will be funded by the Department of Justice. It may take some weeks for the Criminal Assets Bureau Bill to become law but the bureau will operate on a non statutory basis almost immediately.