A new plan on white-collar crime will be introduced by the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee after a review identified significant resource shortcomings.
The review, carried out by the former director of public prosecutions James Hamilton, looked at economic crime and corruption and makes a number of recommendations.
Among them are greater powers and resources for the Standards in Public Office Commission, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Garda Economic and Crime Bureau.
It recommends legislation to give gardaí standalone search warrants to require people under arrest to give up passwords for phones, laptops and other devices.
It also says ethics laws should be reformed to end loopholes.
At the moment former TDs and senators who were not Ministers cannot be investigated for breaches of ethics laws while they were in office.
This became a controversy last year when questions were raised about former TD Dara Murphy and the expenses he claimed while he was largely based in Brussels working a second job.
Nepotism
The Hamilton review also recommends further consideration of a criminal law around nepotism.
While details of that have to be worked out the essence is to avoid any preferential treatment in State contracts or appointments, or the improper use of influence.
It is not intended to focus on situations where politicians may hire family members for parliamentary assistant roles.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has received the report and said she will spearhead a cross-Government approach to tackling corruption and white-collar crime.
Ms McEntee said: “The State and its agencies must have all the powers available to clamp down and prevent white-collar crime.”
“Corruption and white-collar crime damages our economy, breeds cynicism in our society and is a threat to our international reputation,” she said.
