Seized CAB cash should be put into rebuilding communities
Issued : Monday 3 April, 2006
The Rainbow government between 1994 and 1997 was the first government in the history of the state to treat the drugs problem seriously. There were two particularly significant initiatives by the Rainbow government in this area. One was the establishment of the National Drugs Strategy, headed by Pat Rabbitte, which in turn led to the setting up of the Local Drugs Task Forces.
The other was the legislation introduced by Ruari Quinn providing for the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau which allowed the state for the first time to seize the cash and assets of the crime barons. The Criminal Assets Bureau did not solve the drugs problem, but there is no doubt that without it the problem would be far worse.
Some of the worst criminals in the history of the state have been put out of business through the efforts of the CAB. The CAB took almost €19m from criminals and froze cash and assets worth almost €6m during 2004, the last year for which full figures are available. In the same year it assessed criminals for €5.5m in unpaid taxes and penalties and secured tax judgements to the value of more than €5m.
This brought to more than €140m the value of cash and others assets that CAB has frozen or otherwise secured for the state since Ruairi Quinn’s legislation in 1996.
Ten years on and given the successes of the CAB that have exceeded all expectations, it is time to look again at what happens the money. The present situation is that seven years after money is seized from the drug dealers it simply disappears into the financial black hole of government spending.
I believe very strongly that money seized in this way should be used to address the drugs problem that continues to haunt local communities and destroy too many families.
Drugs profits are made on the backs of local communities; in my constituency of Dublin South Central, communities are blighted by the scourge of drugs. Seized profits taken from the dealers should go back into those same communities.
As the money becomes available it should not disappear into the coffers of the Department of Finance. It should be ring-fenced for those communities from which it was misappropriated in one ill-gotten way or another.
The money would help undo the damage done by the drug dealers and other criminals and should be used to help finance projects in disadvantaged areas that would address the causes of crime
Community Employment schemes, childcare, pre-school services, playgrounds, youth projects and anti-drug initiatives could all benefit from this funding.
Unfortunately the drugs problem has not gone away. Drug barons still prey on vulnerable communities. Figures published last December suggest that the illegal drugs trade is now worth one billion Euro per year and there has been a particular explosion in the use of cocaine.
Unfortunately also the drive and initiative shown by Pat Rabbitte, Ruairi Quinn and others has not been followed through. There is a growing rift between community groups working on the ground and officialdom. The success of the Drugs Task Force was built on the principle of partnership between the community sector and the statutory agencies such as the health boards, Gardai and probation service.
We need to rebuild that spirit of partnership. We need to restore the sense of hope that our communities can be freed from the scourge of addictive drugs. One step that would contribute to this would be to ensure that the money seized from the drug bosses is invested back into those communities from which it was taken in the first place.
