Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

On the EU directive on combating money laundering, Ireland was meant to have signed up to that directive in November of 2007. We have been promised for some years a criminal justice (money laundering) Bill. As the Taoiseach is aware, and as he has referred to on several occasions, there are several thousand people in Ireland working in fund management and, because the anti-money laundering legislation to comply with the directive has not been brought in, they are being put at a competitive disadvantage to those working in fund management in the UK, in the Channel Islands, in Luxembourg and in other jurisdictions.

Given the difficulties in the banking sector, I fail to understand. We are being reported and brought before the European Court of Justice for our failure to implement the directive in Irish law.

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