Report on Politically Exposed Persons: Motion Dail Éireann — 2024-04-25 ============================================================ Rose Conway-Walsh (SF), Mayo Yes. That is not going to achieve what we need to achieve here. As was said, the report contains five recommendations. It is an assessment of the system that is currently in place. This system stems from the EU directive. As can sometimes be the case with EU directives, it is quite burdensome legislation. The intention is good but the application absolutely needs to be assessed. Is it really achieving what was set out to be achieved? Politically exposed persons are individuals with prominent public functions and are subject to additional enhanced due diligence when making financial transfers. There is greater assessment in how the use of financial services. is assessed That extends to all family members and associates. It is important that a balance be struck in the context of ensuring that people with access to power are held to the highest standards and that friends or family members with little or no involvement are not unduly impacted in their everyday financial transactions. Their ability to use banking services cannot be made overly difficult, particularly if a family member is not in a very senior or powerful position. It is about proportionality. People have to remember that many of us have family members with intellectual disabilities or other additional needs. They deserve to have bank accounts. Are they under the same scrutiny as we are? It is absolutely not right on so many levels. The origin of this legislation is the Financial Action Task Force. This task force is a highly influential and independent intergovernmental body. It is tasked with developing and promoting policies that protect the global finance system against money laundering. It is closely linked to the OECD and its recommendations have a strong influence on EU and Irish legislation. The Financial Action Task Force is considered to be a global standard-setter in anti-money laundering. The European Union took its work on board when developing this directive. Despite this high-powered international institution, the reality is that money laundering continues on an industrial scale. Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illegal activities. The modern history of attempting to address money laundering is doomed to failure because we are trying to stop the practice without addressing the complete lack of transparency in the global financial system. The daughter of a backbench TD has to jump through all kinds of hoops to try to open a bank account but, at the same time, we are not getting to the heart of how money laundering can be used for corruption. Sinn Féin supports the recommendations of the report but recognises the limitations of addressing the issues raised without deeper, more meaningful reforms for financial transparency. Additional measures have recently been transposed into legislation, and further changes are due to be implemented. The report focuses on the need for better implementation of these changes to allow for an effective system. One of the greatest challenges we face is the lack of transparency in the financial system. This report highlights only one example of how the public interest is harmed by the continuation of the opaque financial system. Beneficial ownership plays a central role in financial transparency and oversight. The joint committee's report refers to the risk of money laundering being facilitated through the misuse of legal entities such as trusts, shell companies and section 110 companies. Anti-money laundering is completely ineffective against more sophisticated approaches that use these entities. Trusts are more commonplace in Ireland than in many other EU member states due to the common law-based legal system. The committee also noted the use of shell companies and section 110 companies and how the use of nominee shareholders and nominee directors can potentially circumvent transparency of beneficial ownership. The intention of these measures is to crack down on corruption or ensure it is not happening. It might be convenient for the Government to push that responsibility back onto banks. Banks certainly have a role to play but that cannot be just a box-ticking exercise. Bureaucracy will inconvenience people but will never address money laundering or corruption. We need to strengthen all institutions that tackle corruption and insider culture in the State. That will not be achieved in this directive and legislation alone. We need to empower and resource institutions in this State that can tackle corruption, white collar crime, cartels and bid rigging. That means that the DPP, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau, the Standards In Public Office Commission and others will need to be involved. There needs to be a joined-up approach. People need to see powerful individuals being held to account. Too often, scandals come and go and no powerful person is ever held to account. This report is really important. The key outcome from it is that what comes from the EU needs to be scrutinised at committee level. We need to ensure that we do what it is intended to do and do not make other people pay, in particular the most vulnerable people in our society, but also people who have absolutely nothing to do with the political system. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. 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