New legislation to tackle white collar crime has been published, and is due to be passed into law before the end of July.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter has said that the new Criminal Justice Bill will speed up both future and current investigations and prosecutions.
The legislation is based on the problems experienced with complex investigations.
The new laws will allow gardaí to break periods of detention for questioning to allow for further investigation.
The legislation will allow detainees to be released, with their period of detention suspended and then require them to return to the Garda station for further questioning.
The new bill when law will give gardaí new powers.
Gardaí will be able to apply for court orders to require people to produce documents and answer questions.
The legislation will be able to compel documents to be identified and categorised when produced, to avoid the delays caused by the production of large volumes of poorly ordered and uncategorised documents.
The legislation also aims to prevent unnecessary delays due to claims of legal privilege, and will create a new offence of failure to report information to the Gardaí.
The Government hopes to have the legislation passed into law before the summer recess at the end of July.
In the High Court last Tuesday, Mr Justice Peter Kelly strongly criticised the pace of the investigation into Anglo Irish Bank, saying the case was not unique in the commercial and corporate sector.
