The Criminal Assets Bureau has defended its role in tackling white-collar crime, following comments that its remit needs to be extended to deal with tax evasion and crimes arising in the corporate sector.
Mr Barry Galvin, the bureau's legal officer, said the agency did not focus solely on drug trafficking and had tackled other types of criminal activity, including financial fraud.
However, he said the bureau had no role in initiating actions against people who were facing "allegations" of tax evasion. He said purely tax-based investigations were a matter for the Revenue Commissioners. "They are there to enforce the tax Acts."
He was speaking at the annual conference of the Corporate and Public Services Solicitors' Association in Dublin. He was responding to opening comments at the conference from Mr Des O'Malley TD, who said the bureau's remit should be extended to tackle white-collar crime.
Mr Galvin said the perception was that the bureau concentrated exclusively on the drug problem. "We are not confined to that area, but because drugs have become so profitable and have produced such large fortunes for criminals, that has been our main focus in recent years," he said.
The head of the Garda Fraud Bureau, Det Chief Supt Felix McKenna, told the conference that in the past four years it had received more than 4,500 complaints of fraud. Arising from investigations subsequently launched, the Garda had charged 300 people for various offences.