Financial Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-25
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I genuinely look forward to any discussion of how we do better and do more on this area, which is really important and of growing concern. It is important to note responsibility for various aspects of legislation and policy on combating money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism and the financing of weapons of mass destruction falls across a number of Departments, including mine as well the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, among others.
Notwithstanding this whole-of-government approach, my Department has a number of distinct but intersecting roles. It has a central co-ordination function through the national anti–money laundering steering committee, which brings together relevant Departments, State agencies and the private sector self-regulatory bodies in the legal and accountancy professions. It also has responsibility for aspects of the relevant legislation, in particular the transposition of the sixth anti–money laundering directive, in partnership with the Department of justice. My Department also co-ordinates Ireland’s participation in the Financial Action Task Force which develops global standards for combating money laundering, the financing of terrorism and the financing of weapons of mass destruction. The Financial Action Task Force conducts periodic independent peer-based evaluations of countries to assess both their compliance with the task force’s standards and the effectiveness of the measures a country has taken to combat money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing. Ireland’s next mutual evaluation will be in 2027 and 2028. In other words, we will be externally viewed starting next year to assess how we are getting on with this area.
Over the last two years, my Department has managed the preparation of Ireland’s latest national risk assessment, which the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, and I jointly launched last week. The assessment is detailed. It includes 20 sectoral risk assessments, 12 of which are in the financial services sector, and in turn provides a basis to help inform our policy, regulatory and operational priorities. This is accompanied by a detailed action plan comprising 30 measures, which are being progressed across Government and other relevant stakeholders. Officials in my Department will lead delivery of 11 of these. These actions include progressing key measures such as strengthening frameworks on terrorism, enhancing sanctions, improving beneficial ownership transparency, etc. We have committed to reporting progress on these actions every six months to Cabinet and publicly.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-25