The European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi has warned that Ireland is not protected against financial fraud.
Ms Kövesi, who is head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that she will try to convince the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan of the benefit of Ireland joining EPPO.
“This will bring more internal security, this will bring more efficiency to fight against criminal groups, and we will help more, as we did already in some Member States, to recover the damages that are created via financial criminality.
The EPPO is an independent body of the European Union, established as a prosecutorial body to address crimes affecting the financial interests of the EU.
“There are connections in our cases that are connected to Ireland, either to Irish citizens, Irish companies, and in most of the cases with the companies that are based here in Ireland. And when it's about VAT fraud, about custom fraud, about the fraud with humanity, I can tell you that the level of fraud was underestimated for many years.
“Just via VAT frauds, according to Real Pol estimations, Europe is losing €50 billion year after year. Ireland is not protected because the criminals will try to find the best place where they can deal with their illegal activities."
Ms Kövesi described how Poland was not intially in the EPPO, and criminal were moving businesses to Poland due to the country's lack of an EPPO office. She said that now Poland has joined the EPPO, "we have this waterbed effect".
"If you take a lot of measures in some member states, the criminals will run to another place. So there is a risk now that they will come here in Ireland, because if we don't have an office here and this is not a priority. They will operate freely," she said.
"It's not because you don't have maybe the best investigators in the world, I'm sure you do. It's about the fact that they do not have access to all the information. They will see only what is happening in Ireland without having the big picture.”
"Organised crime is not national anymore, and crime has no borders. So those who cheat for drugs they will cheat for taxes and they will launder the money.
"From this perspective, our colleagues from the police and from the prosecution office (in Ireland) would like to join EPPO because we are much faster and more efficient, especially when the crimes are committed across borders.”
