Questions

74. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether his Department or the Revenue Commissioners have undertaken, commissioned, or estimated any compliance cost, systems-integration cost, or administrative burden for small and medium-sized enterprises arising from proposals discussed in the public consultation on the modernisation of withholding taxes, including any move toward real-time or near…

206. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he has approved, or intends to approve, in principle, any policy direction arising from the Revenue Commissioners' consultation on the modernisation of withholding taxes, including professional services withholding tax and relevant contracts tax, that would involve increased reporting frequency or real-time or near-real-time integration between bu…

410. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of applications received and approved under (a) Transfer of Business relief and (b) Returned Goods Relief in respect of construction tools brought into the State by returning Irish citizens in each of the past five years; the number refused in each case; and the principal grounds for refusal. [10001/26]

411. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will outline the position in respect of Irish citizens returning to live and work in the State as employees in the construction sector who bring personally owned tools with them from non-EU countries; and if he accepts that such individuals are excluded from Transfer of Business relief under current rules. [10002/26]

412. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether his Department has undertaken any assessment of the impact of Customs Duty and VAT charges on construction tools on the return of skilled Irish tradespeople from outside the EU, in light of acknowledged labour shortages in the construction sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10003/26]

413. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the average processing time for applications under Transfer of Business relief involving tools of the trade; the documentation most commonly outstanding or queried by Revenue; and whether any guidance has been issued to streamline applications for returning Irish citizens. [10004/26]

414. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if consideration has been given to extending relief from Customs Duty and VAT on tools of the trade to returning Irish citizens employed in the construction sector who do not meet the sole-trader criteria for Transfer of Business relief; and if not, the reason for this position. [10005/26]

180. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether the Central Bank of Ireland requires regulated financial institutions to notify it where multiple legal claims involving materially similar facts or customer cohorts are settled on a confidential basis; if so, the notification mechanism and thresholds which applied; and if not, the way in which the Central Bank is assured that such settlement…

181. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of occasions since 2019 on which the Central Bank of Ireland has required a regulated financial institution to extend redress beyond individual litigants to a wider customer cohort following the outcome of litigation or confidential settlement; and the statutory or supervisory basis relied upon in each case. [9061/26]

182. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether the Central Bank of Ireland maintains internal guidance, criteria, or decision-making frameworks to assess when repeated settlements or litigation outcomes indicate a breach of the "stop the harm" principle; and whether he will publish the headline principles of any such framework in the interests of transparency. [9062/26]

183. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance to provide a sectoral breakdown, for each of the past five years, of anti-money laundering and know-your-customer supervisory inspections carried out by the Central Bank of Ireland, distinguishing between credit institutions, investment funds, fund service providers, and other financial institutions. [9063/26]

184. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of supervisory findings, remedial directions, or enforcement actions issued by the Central Bank of Ireland since 2019 which involved deficiencies in the identification or verification of ultimate beneficial owners; and whether such deficiencies arose more frequently in any particular sector. [9064/26]

185. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether the Central Bank of Ireland collects or analyses data on the frequency with which regulated firms rely on third-party customer due diligence under section 40 of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010; and whether any supervisory concerns have arisen regarding delayed, incomplete, or inaccessible underlying be…

186. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether the Central Bank of Ireland requires firms relying on third parties for customer due diligence to conduct periodic assurance testing to confirm that full underlying documentation can be produced without delay; and how compliance with this requirement is monitored at supervisory level. [9066/26]

187. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether the Central Bank of Ireland has identified any instances where reliance on intermediaries or professional advisers has resulted in delayed identification of beneficial owners or incomplete source-of-funds verification; and whether any thematic reviews have been conducted in this area. [9067/26]

188. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether his Department monitors trends in the proportion of complaints to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman which are deemed inadmissible or closed prior to full investigation; and whether any assessment has been made of the impact of such trends on effective consumer access to redress. [9068/26]

189. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether, following the 2023 Periodic Critical Review of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, his Department has considered further evaluation of admissibility thresholds or screening criteria applied to complaints; and if not, to state the basis on which he is satisfied that current arrangements strike an appropriate balance between indepen…

190. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether the National Risk Assessment currently being finalised includes specific consideration of reputational risk arising from enforcement intensity, settlement practices, or beneficial ownership verification; and when he expects the assessment to be published. [9072/26]

191. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether any concerns regarding Ireland's practical application of anti-money laundering or know-your-customer controls have been raised with his Department by EU institutions or international standard-setting bodies since 2021; and if so, to outline the general nature of those concerns. [9073/26]

377. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance further to his stated intention to introduce additional regulation of high-cost credit and consumer lending, the specific categories of lending he proposes to regulate, including online retail credit, premium finance arrangements, and other non-bank consumer credit providers; and the policy objectives such regulation is intended to achieve. [7623/26]

378. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether his Department or the Central Bank has assessed the scale and growth of high-cost and unregulated consumer lending in the State over the past five years; the number of providers operating in this space; and the estimated number of consumers currently accessing such credit. [7624/26]

379. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether he accepts that a significant proportion of consumers who access high-cost or unregulated credit do so due to exclusion from mainstream banking; whether any socio-economic analysis has been undertaken on the profile of such borrowers; and how proposed regulatory measures will prevent vulnerable consumers being exposed to exploitative lending …

380. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether the regulatory proposals he has signalled will include statutory caps on total credit cost or effective annual percentage rates for both regulated and currently unregulated consumer lending; and if not, the justification for permitting high interest rates in circumstances where borrowers have limited or no alternative access to credit. [7626/…

381. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the timeline by which he expects draft legislative or regulatory proposals on high-cost credit to be brought forward; whether public consultation or impact assessment will form part of this process; and how consumer protection outcomes will be measured once any new regulatory framework is introduced. [7627/26]

383. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance whether he approved, or intends to approve, any policy direction arising from the current public consultation on the modernisation of withholding taxes (eWHT), including Professional Services Withholding Tax and Relevant Contracts Tax, that would require businesses to provide payment or financial data to the Revenue Commissioners on a real-time or ne…