Memo to File

Barrister Eimear Dooley BL considers our recent episode on the Criminal Assets Bureau, examining the in rem distinction at the heart of the Proceeds of Crime Act and what it means for legal practitioners engaging with CAB cases.

We won't be exploring an Irish policy project this week, but we have added further reading to the show notes on the previous episodes to tide you over. A collated list of all those materials is also available on Substack @memotofile . We will be back soon with some more content and we would love to hear from you, so please do send any thoughts, critiques or questions to our email memotofilepodcast...

Retired Garda Detective Chief Superintendent Pat Byrne discusses the Criminal Assets Bureau from his experience as the agency's first Detective Inspector and later as its Chief Bureau Officer. Established in 1996, CAB is a multi-agency body tasked with tackling proceeds of crime, unpaid taxes and fraudulently obtained welfare payments. Over the past 30 years, CAB has returned hundreds of millions...

Economist Colm McCarthy discusses infrastructure delivery, fiscal prudence, populism, accountability and more. McCarthy was a member of the Expenditure Review Committee, often referred to as An Bord Snip, which was an advisory group established during a period of economic downturn in the 1980s to make recommendations to the the Irish government on cuts to state spending. Colm later chaired the Spe...

Former Secretary General Brendan Tuohy discusses the Global Crossing project. With major backing from the Irish government, Global Crossing involved building two transatlantic fibre-optic cables and compatible landing points in Ireland. The Irish government pre-purchased capacity on the cables as an anchor customer, with major multinationals and telecoms carriers expected to buy the capacity later...

Lily Collison and Professor Jennifer Ryan discuss the Cerebral Palsy Programme of Excellence, a five-year initiative that is improving care for those with cerebral palsy in Ireland. The Programme of Excellence is advancing a national register and advocacy group, in addition to supporting the development of a coordinated, evidence-based approach to care and research. Lily Collison co-founded the Ce...

This conversation with Frank Allen, former CEO of the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA), explores the Luas light rail project in Dublin and considers what can be learned from it. The RPA was established in 2001 to deliver the Luas and a separate tender process was established to select the operator. In 2015, The RPA was folded into Transport Infrastructure Ireland which now oversees major road and...

Memo to File releases weekly on Thursdays. Join us for conversations with the people who made Ireland better about doing good work, lessons learned and the institutional memory often lost over time.