Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill and I thank the Deputies for their contributions to this Stage of the debate.

I want to put a few points on the record. I agree with Deputy Doherty that this legislation has improved from its original iteration in the previous Dáil in that there are greater procedures in place to identify the beneficial owners. Other than that, I disagree with everything that has been said in the past 20 minutes. It was said that this legislation is being rushed through the Oireachtas at a late hour. I want to inform Deputies who may not have been following what has been going on in regard to this legislation that this is the seventh session I have had in the Oireachtas on this legislation. I took it through Second Stage in the Seanad and on at least three occasions on Committee Stage, followed by Report and Final Stages. The Bill also went through Second Stage and Committee Stage in this House and we are here tonight dealing with Report and Final Stages. This is the seventh occasion in the past two months this Bill has been before the Houses of the Oireachtas. It is no way being rushed. This is the final leg.

I will now address the inaccurate, unfair and untrue statements about this legislation being a reflection of the Government's priorities. I want to tell the House about the Government's priority in regard to the legislation I have been dealing with directly since taking up office a few short months ago. In the past three months, in terms of the priority of the Department of Finance when it comes to legislation, the Bill was last in the queue before the Christmas recess. When I came into this office in July we dealt with the July stimulus package, which allowed people to access the emergency wage subsidy scheme, which followed on from the temporary wage subsidy scheme. Since September the Oireachtas has passed the following legislation from the Department of Finance, for which I have direct responsibility, namely, the Brexit legislation, which dealt with customs, VAT and taxes and the Finance Bill 2020, which concluded its passage earlier today in the Seanad, and introduced and put on a statutory footing the Covid restrictions subsidy scheme, CRSS, to help small businesses. That was our priority, in addition to the priority around the introduction of the emergency wage subsidy scheme. I also brought through the legislation dealing with the Credit Union Restructuring Board, which was an old organisation that reflected the difficulties the credit unions had in previous times and is no longer necessary. We dealt with that legislation here in recent weeks as well.

In the past couple of weeks, and as late as last Friday afternoon, we dealt with the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2020, which dealt with allowing the credit unions to postpone their AGMs because of the Covid situation and provide for virtual AGMs where a local credit union wishes to do that. That legislation also makes special provision for the Minister for Finance to borrow funding for the first time ever directly from the EU to pay for the emergency wage subsidy scheme and the temporary wage subsidy scheme, which is all about people who are working in Ireland. Of the six Bills that I have been dealing with since I came into office, this is the only one that deals with the investment fund. Lest people forget it - they might not like to hear this - there are 50,000 people working in the financial services sector in Ireland and they are not all just down the road from here. Many of them are in major provincial towns around the country. If there are people here who have a problem with those 50,000 people being employed in that sector and they want to pick off those 50,000 people, they are free to do so but I will not have any hand, act or part in that.

On this legislation, it was the decision of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and the Taoiseach that it not undergo pre-legislative scrutiny. There was no request from any Minister in that regard: that was the decision of the committee. On the comment that this is an opaque instrument, it is not opaque because we are passing in on the floor of the Oireachtas. As I said, this is the seventh or eighth time in the past two months this legislation has been discussed on the floor of the Houses of the Oireachtas. Nothing could be more open or more transparent. There are stronger provisions in this legislation in regard to establishing the identity of the beneficial owners behind these investments than are in place in any other country in Europe. In addition, everything in this legislation is in line with, and superior to, the anti-money laundering legislation that exists at European level. The Central Bank of Ireland is the regulator. None of these companies can conduct any business without prior approval from the Irish regulator, which is the Central Bank. It closely monitors this area. The Central Bank is deemed to be a strict regulator when compared to how countries across the globe and other EU economies regulate these funds.

All-in-all, this is important legislation. I accept it is being taken at a late hour but that is because of the amount of time spent on other Stages in the Dáil and the Seanad. We arrived here with good legislation. This legislation is so good that no Deputy from the Opposition felt the need to table any amendments to it. To me, that is an endorsement of this legislation and how it has been processed. I am not yielding on this issue. If amendments had been tabled to this legislation, we would not be dealing with it at this late hour. Following on from all of the discussion on various Stages in the Dáil, Seanad and committee, everyone was satisfied. Senator Higgins's point in regard to transparency was mentioned. Those who want to invest in any of the funds that come under this legislation must produce their PPS number before they can become an investor and if they are from outside the State, they must produce their passports.

There is, therefore, no question of fictitious people being able to invest in this fund. They will not get approval by the Central Bank unless they can prove who they are.

The issue of beneficial owners was mentioned. Every investor has to declare himself or herself and the investors have to be known. However, an investor can be deemed a beneficial owner if he or she invests more than 25%, or if he or she has much less than 25% but is deemed to be in a position of control of a particular fund even though nominally he or she might not have 25%.

This legislation is very strict and thorough. It has followed one of the most detailed scrutinies we have had through this Oireachtas in the past few months. It has been on the floor of the Oireachtas seven or eight times. Anyone who suggests we are rushing it through at a midnight hour has not been paying attention to what has been going on during the other seven debates up to now. If, after Committee Stage, the Bill required a lot of amendments, I would have been happy to leave this over until the new year. If people had indicated that there was much yet to discuss, had tabled amendments and wanted amendments discussed on Report Stage, I would have been very happy to postpone the Bill. When it was clear to me, having gone through those other seven discussions in the Oireachtas, that no further amendments or suggestions of improvements were coming through from any member of the Opposition, I made the reasonable assumption that there was a reasonable level of satisfaction with the legislation. That is why we are moving it here in a relatively short period. Essentially, all the issues have been well-ventilated, well-discussed, well-explained and well-understood by the Members who contributed in those debates over the past two months.

This legislation is an important step to maintain Ireland's place as the leading funds domicile in Europe. It fulfils a commitment in the programme for Government to progress the revision of the investment limited partnerships structure, which has been on the Statute Book for a number of years. This is an effort to improve the legislation that is already there and it will allow the Irish financial services sector to compete for some of the global private equity market that, to date, has chosen other European or global locations to base such investment funds. The anti-money laundering provisions and the common contractual funds contained in this Bill will make Ireland one of the most fit for purpose of any funds scheme operating in Europe. The Central Bank says it will implement this strictly and I will hold it to that. Other Deputies have said the Central Bank has not always done what it should do but this legislation is particularly strong in that people will have to prove who they are before they can invest.

It is good for Ireland that we can approach this legislation with proper controls in place to facilitate and hopefully increase employment in the financial services sector, above the 50,000 or so who already work in it. If Deputies have a problem with people working in the sector, that is their problem but I do not think the people employed in that sector would appreciate that. All in all, it is good legislation. It has been thoroughly debated through the Houses of the Oireachtas over the past two months and I commend it to the House.

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