Report on Politically Exposed Persons: Motion
Dail Éireann — 2024-04-25
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Seán Ó Fearghaíl (CC), Kildare South

Before I call on our colleagues, Deputies Connolly and Conway-Walsh, I should declare a personal interest in this. I have had experience as a father, in particular. I saw my four children, as teenagers and students, open credit union accounts with the proceeds of their part-time jobs. Each year, they received a request from the credit union to explain where they got the money from and to show that I had not pilfered or siphoned it off from somewhere. They were told, when they supplied the necessary information, that the board would then consider if the credit union could continue to provide them with credit union services.
One of my older daughters, who works in the financial services sector, applied to buy a financial product, an investment product. She filled in the prospectus, which made no reference to politically exposed persons. Within 24 hours, she was refused permission to acquire the product because the company, which was reputable, told her she was politically exposed. Therefore, she could not have the savings product. Meanwhile, I look around me and see considerable numbers of properties being acquired through cash sales. I see very little happening about that. That raises issues, in my view, about money laundering. That is my declaration of interest.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-04-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:52+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-04-25