The Justice Minister hopes treaties signed with the United Arab Emirates to facilitate extradition will be operational in a matter of weeks.

Minister Helen McEntee was in Abu Dhabi today where she met her justice counterpart from the UAE, Minister Al Nawami.

She says cooperation between both countries has stepped up over the last two years on combating transnational organised crime.

Minister McEntee told The Hard Shoulder there will be a more efficient extradition process.

"Today, I met with my colleague, Minister Al Nawami, who is the Minister for Justice here in the UAE, to sign both treaties," she said.

"This is a treaty on extradition and a treaty on mutual legal assistance.

"What both of these treaties will mean, essentially, is that we will now have structures in place that didn't exist before to allow for a much quicker and much more efficient process of extradition if we're trying to bring criminals home.

Greater cooperation

Minister McEntee added that it will also allow the two countries "to have greater cooperation in a number of different areas".

"This is a really, really important structure to assist in our quest to deal with and to tackle organized crime, really," she said.

"And I think once this is fully operational, which I hope would be in a matter of weeks, that this would prove really effective in dealing with organized crime and most importantly, bringing home people who are wanted for very serious crimes at home."

Not targeting individuals

The Minister emphasised that these treaties are not built to target certain individuals or groups, while acknowledging the succesful arrest of the senior Kinahan gang member, Sean McGovern.

"It's important to say that this will apply to everybody - to anybody who's committed a crime where there is a penalty of more than a year," she said.

"That can be everything from, you know, aggravated burglary, serious assault, to attempted murder, murder and obviously serious financial crime or fraud."

Phenomenal cooperation

The Minister said the cooperation seen from the UAE has been "phenomenal".

"They are as eager as we are to deal with organised crime, to make sure that they don't, as a country, be seen as a country that would support or harbor anybody who's involved in organized crime," she said.

"Obviously for the future, I think it bodes really well that it's not just about extradition, but also any other kind of case, any other type of investigation, there'll be much closer cooperation between our two countries, between our judicial systems, but also between the Gardaí and their police."

Transnational

The Minister emphasised the transnational nature of new criminality.

"What's very clear is that crime is no longer just based in the country that a person might be in or otherwise," Minister McEntee said.

"It has become so transnational. It has become so online, and that is why we have had to expand.

"The transnational nature of crime really has made things more difficult, but it's meant that treaties like this have been really, really important."

The Minister also commented on the prevalence of organised crime groups in Ireland, saying: "That should never stop us from putting in place these type of measures."

Listen back here:

Justice Minister Helen McEntee speaking to the media at Government Buildings, 7-8-24. Image: Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie