SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan has endorsed the extension of new powers to the North which will give police officers new tools to tackle organised crime and recover criminally obtained assets.
Speaking during last night’s approval of the extension of the Proceeds of Crime Act to Northern Ireland in the House of Commons, Mr Durkan said most people in the North would welcome the fact that there was to be a “full, even and consistent” pursuit of the proceeds of crime.
He added: “During the last set of negotiations at Stormont House, paramilitarism was a vexed issue among the parties.
“There was an impression abroad that not all the proceeds of crime were being fully pursued, and that some of those in possession of assets that were deemed to derive from years of paramilitary activity were being allowed to enjoy a life of ease and economic largesse that would otherwise have been discomfited by the relevant authorities.
“It was also thought that some of those assets were treated as personal rather than organisational, because some of those persons were deemed to be friends of the peace process.
“Both governments, North and South, tried to reassure parties that that was not the case, and they undertook to ensure that in all legal measures and in all future practice, there would be a clear working assurance that no bye ball was given, no blind eyes were turned and there was no acceptable level of criminal enterprise, current or historic.
Mr Durkan concluded: “In so far as these statutory instruments add to that suite of reassurance to everyone and are compatible with the very important architecture derived from Patten in relation to the policing environment in Northern Ireland, my party is happy to endorse these statutory instruments.”
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