John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The deadline for registration of beneficial ownership is Friday, 22 November. A deadline was introduced following SI 110/2019, and I agree with its aims, namely, to prevent money laundering. Last week, Revenue's website crashed, and all the accountants and agents who were dealing with their clients' end-of-year registration are the same people dealing with the current issue. Their week last week was extended because of the crashing of the website. The deadline needs to be extended.

I draw the Minister's attention to the fines at play. Should a community centre that formed a company, a social economy company or a group water scheme - there are many small companies, which may be unaware of the necessity - fail to register, the penalty can be a fine of up to €500,000 or a term in jail. We would hate people to be unaware of the issue. We need to take the opportunity to make them aware and extend the deadline by at least one week. I ask the Minister to contact the Minister for Finance and do something.

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