Legislation to enhance the ability of Europol to deal with money laundering and the operation of investigation teams was introduced in the Dáil yesterday.
The Europol (Amendment) Bill gives effect in Irish domestic law to three protocols of the Europol Convention, which deals with the international agency that supports police services across the EU.
Introducing the legislation, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said it would not alter the structure of Europol but one of the three protocols "extends its competence to money laundering, regardless of the types of offences from which the laundered proceeds originate".
The second protocol "clarifies certain powers in respect of the participation in joint investigation teams and the privileges and immunity applying to members of Europol". The third element "streamlines the internal working of Europol, particularly in respect of liaison procedures and analysis and the processing of data".
Fine Gael's justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe said "it makes sense that we strengthen our international co-operation measures and the need to do that has never been as urgent".
His main concern "is not to in any way hamper or hinder the activities of Europol but to explore whether it is sufficiently developed as an organisation to provide a sufficient input into the fight against international crime".
Brian O'Shea (Lab, Waterford) said, however, that it was "incredible and completely unacceptable" that it took six years to bring the money-laundering protocol from 2000 before the Dáil. Ciarán Cuffe (Green, Dún Laogharie ) said it made sense "to have greater international co-operation in fighting crime. The downside of having freedom of movement within the European Union is that it has facilitated a big increase in cross-border crime.
"Nevertheless, we need strong safeguards regarding the extensive powers we have given and are giving to Europol."
Catherine Murphy (Ind, Kildare North) also criticised the delay in dealing with the issue. The Bill now goes to committee.
