Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Obviously they are difficult questions to answer and it is good in a sense the spotlight has been put on this whole issue now. This is something that has gone into all sorts of media and there has been more of a focus on it.

I ask about the lack of transparency around the ownership of certain types of company structures operating in the IFSC. This State introduced its register of beneficial ownership as part of the EU's fifth anti-money laundering directive. However, as has been noted by Transparency International it permits the use of legal trustees to list themselves as beneficial owners when we know they are not the beneficiary but rather acting on behalf of them. It also only requires those with a shareholding of over 25% to record their ownership. In a company with four owners with an equal shareholding of 25%, none of them would be recorded as beneficial owners. This being the case does Dr. Stewart believe this State's register of beneficial ownership is fit for purpose? Do we need to lower the ownership thresholds? Should we allow trustees to be recorded as beneficial owners? We know some of these Russian-connected companies did not merely use trust ownership structures. Some even used charitable trust ownership structures and from what we can see these companies are not exactly the Red Cross, so does he think that is appropriate?