Criminal Assets Bureau

Criminal Assets Bureau
Logo of the Criminal Assets Bureau
Agency overview
Formed	15 October, 1996
Employees	71 (total) 37 Garda Síochána members 16 Department of Justice and Equality officials 12 Revenue Commissioners officers 6 Department of Social Protection officers
Annual budget	€6.678 million
Legal personality	Non government: Body corporate
Jurisdictional structure
National agency (Operations jurisdiction)	IE
Map of Criminal Assets Bureau's jurisdiction.
Size	70,273 km2
Population	4,588,252
Legal jurisdiction	Republic of Ireland
Constituting instrument	Criminal Assets Bureau Act, 1996
General nature	Law enforcement Civilian police
Operational structure
Headquarters	Harcourt Square, Harcourt Street, Dublin 2
Elected officer responsible	Frances Fitzgerald, TD, Minister for Justice and Equality
Agency executives	Patrick Clavin, Chief Bureau Officer Declan O'Reilly, Bureau Legal Officer
Notables Award Taoiseach's Public Service Excellence Awards (2004)
Footnotes
Data as of Annual Report 2015

71 (total)

The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) (Irish: An Biúró um Shócmhainní Coiriúla) is a law enforcement agency in Ireland. The CAB was established with powers to focus on the illegally acquired assets of criminals involved in serious crime. The aims of the CAB are to identify the criminally acquired assets of persons and to take the appropriate action to deny such people of these assets. This action is taken particularly through the application of the Proceeds of Crime Act, 1996. The CAB was established as a body corporate with perpetual succession in 1996 and is founded on the multi-agency concept, drawing together law enforcement officers, tax officials, social welfare officials as well as other specialist officers including legal officers, forensic analysts and financial analysts. This multi-agency concept is regarded by some as the model for other European jurisdictions.

The CAB is not a division of the Garda Síochána (police) but rather an independent body corporate although it has many of the powers normally given to the Gardaí. The Chief Bureau Officer is drawn from a member of the Garda Síochána holding the rank of Chief Superintendent and is appointed by the Garda Commissioner. The remaining staff of the CAB are appointed by the Minister for Justice and Equality. CAB members retain their original powers and possibilities as if they were working within their separate entities and have direct access to information and databases that their original organizations are allowed by law. This ability to share information was described by the Garda Síochána Inspectorate in its Crime Investigation Report of October 2014 as "a good model that could be replicated outside of CAB".

The CAB reports annually to the Minister through the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána and this report is laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Minister for Justice and Equality, in publishing the 2011 CAB Annual Report, stated: "The work of the bureau is one of the key law enforcement responses to tackling crime and the Government is very much committed to further strengthening the powers of the bureau through forthcoming legislative proposals." In publishing the Bureau's 2012 report the Minister for Justice and Equality set out: "The Annual Report provides an insight into the workings of the Bureau and highlights the advantage of adopting a multi-agency and multi-disciplinary approach to the targeting of illicit assets. The Bureau is an essential component in the State’s law enforcement response to serious and organised crime and the Government is fully committed to further strengthening its powers through future legislative reform."