2026-06-25

7. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the action he is taking to tackle dark money in the Irish financial system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48197/26]

There is a significant issue with the amount of criminal money laundering going through Europe. There is €647 billion in crime proceeds washed through Europe every year. We have €5 trillion in domiciled investment funds hosted in Ireland. The Garda has warned of an explosion in the recruitment of money mules. What is the Government doing to address dark money? I am aware of the action plan but there are significant gaps in it I wish to highlight, including on enforcement. What is Government doing to address that?

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.

As the Tánaiste said, there are 30 actions in the action plan but none of them address the chronic under-resourcing of enforcement. This has been flagged for years and we have a situation where billions and billions are being funnelled through Ireland. The Garda has a backlog of tens of thousands of money laundering cases waiting to be examined. The financial intelligence unit and the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau are grossly under-resourced. It is fine to have the action plan and the aspirations but we have tens of thousands of unexamined cases. It is have been flagged that the area is chronically under-resourced but nowhere in the action plan does the Government commit to putting the resources into enforcement, so it does not add up to much. The resourcing of enforcement has to be looked at if the Government is going to take this area seriously. I have no reason to think it is not but if it does not put the resources into enforcement. then I can legitimately ask how serious it is about this.

It is a fair point. We have published an action plan with the 30 actions and the reporting structure every six months as well. We have to ensure that is adequately resourced. There are associated resource implications that arise from changes to Ireland's anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, AML-CFT, regime due to the sixth anti–money laundering directive and also increased requirements from the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, AMLA. In recent Government discussions we highlighted some of these issues as well. Of course, these will have to form part of the annual Estimates process through engagement with the Department of public expenditure. In this context, law enforcement agencies, the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland and the Companies Registration Office may also be in scope. We have literally just published the plan. There is a commitment to work across Government on it. Any additional resourcing can and will be considered in the context of the budget.

The other key gap is the national risk assessment identified serious issues and significant risks with regard to crypto assets, yet the action plan only has two measures on such assets and misses a whole range of risks. It misses, for example, any scrutiny of peel chains where criminals break large crypto amounts into small, tiny transfers to hide the trail. It misses any analysis of unhosted crypto wallets that are not tied to any regulated provider making transparency harder to trace, as well as any mention of the use of crypto to buy high-value goods, which is a common laundering method. It is fine to have the action plan and references to crypto but key crypto issues identified in the national risk assessment plan are missing from the action plan altogether. Why are they missing? Why are they not being addressed? Is the Tánaiste not concerned about these things, which were seriously flagged in the national risk assessment? How come they are not reflected in the action plan? Why have them in the national risk assessment but not in the action plan? How did that happen and why?

It is a fair point to which I will seek a decent answer for the Deputy. I will come back to him in writing on it. I am concerned about the issues relating to crypto and some of the issues the Deputy has highlighted. I will get specialist advice as to our level of satisfaction that the actions are robustly dealing with them, or not. I am also concerned about other recent developments we have seen in this country, including the recent examination of developments that we saw around a recent by-election. I asked my officials to complete an analysis of the situation. There are discussions ongoing at an EU level to determine whether financial market regulation should apply to certain transactions. This is an area that we need to look at. There is no current evidence that any of this reported activity arose in this jurisdiction but the level of focus, with the greatest respect to the Dublin Central by-election, from forces outside our jurisdiction is a significant cause for concern. This is a fast-evolving area in general. Our action plan is an honest effort to try to co-ordinate on it, but we also need to be humble in terms of any good or positive feedback that comes forward regarding areas we can look at further. I will engage with the Deputy in writing on crypto.