Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and compliment him because it is the first time we have had him before the House as a new junior Minister in the Department of Justice and Equality. I wish him all the very best in that post.

This legislation emanates from a 2018 European Parliament directive, which I understand we are a little late in bringing into vogue in Ireland. However, better late than never. Many people around the country have, unfortunately, borne the brunt of this issue. The manner in which the banks handle situations where fraud has taken place has been a long-term problem for many people. We have seen this in recent times. There was a large scam going on whereby people's bank accounts were being plundered. I came across many students who had their savings taken completely from them and had to put up a notorious fight to get the banks to compensate them for that. One of the issues that immediately springs to mind in that regard is how this can be done under the watch of banking authorities where proper due diligence is supposed to be in place to ensure that the people who are transacting accounts do so in the proper way.

There are clear issues in this regard, and many of the measures in this legislation seek to deal with them. The legislation is quite detailed. I read the debates that took place in 2018 on the amendments that were brought to the 2010 Act. The legislation before the House is an expansion of that in the context of a moving, changing society and the world of finance and money. Now we have virtual money, bitcoin and all sorts of transactions taking place, which would seem strange to the layperson on the street but which have become the norm, unfortunately, and have been used by criminal elements all over the world. It has always struck me that, particularly in a European Union context, we have talked about the free movement of people, labour and work and so on but a lot of this is about the free movement of capital and the fact that capital can move in and out of two jurisdictions, not just across Europe but across the world. This has opened up opportunities for very smart and tech-savvy people who are able to use this to their advantage and to the advantage of a criminal underworld that can profit greatly from it. There have been other recent scams. I heard on, I think, "Morning Ireland" - I am not sure whether it was yesterday morning or last week - that there is this issue of money mules, whereby people are being conned into allowing their bank accounts to be used for the processing of large sums. If this happens, they are enticed into some kind of financial award, which is highly illegal. The State needs a strong arm to make sure that this does not happen. Unfortunately, and this is one issue at the core of everything in our society, as long as we have poverty and as long as there are people who have no prospect of a bright new future for themselves, any way of making a fast buck is very tempting to them. Those involved in this activity are inclined to use that and, unfortunately, some people fall into and get caught in that trap.

We, as a society, and particularly the banking institutions through which these processes are put in place, have an absolute obligation to protect everyone, including the ordinary citizen out there and the unfortunate person who may be tempted to go down this road because of the financial enticement involved. There have been many international examples. The world of high finance and banking have known for decades of the movement of large volumes of capital and the movement of illicit funds through various accounts, and not only have they done nothing about it but they have not even attempted to report it in many cases. There is a view among not just the ordinary people out there but the people I speak to in this profession that there is a lot of playing fast and loose with the rules. This legislation goes somewhere on that. It may not go all the way, and there is a lot more to be done on all this. One measure that could be expanded on is what level of sanction there is for the banks if they are seen to break these rules. I know there is some element of this in the original legislation, but it would be important to tease that out and illuminate further what more could be done about this. Unless there is a very strong sanction in place against the banking institutions for allowing this kind of thing to happen, they will continue to do so. We have seen them do so, in fact, with their own account holders. On many occasions, people have been overcharged and have not even been able to get a refund. The banking institutions inhabit a very murky financial world where an awful lot of white-collar crime happens under our very noses and, unfortunately, with the co-operation of very many people within those institutions. The regulatory authorities that are meant to be keeping a very close eye on this and to be doing something about it have very often failed, and those failings are brought to bear in all this.

This legislation is appropriate. It will warrant adequate debate here, as I am sure it will over the coming days. As we move forward we need to make sure we hold to account the people who have in the past wrecked communities and the lives of so many people around the world. This happens not only in Ireland; unfortunately, it is a global phenomenon and we need to be part of a global solution to it.

Transposing this EU directive into law is a first step in making that happen.

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