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

We will support this motion. It is European legislation which is being transposed into Irish law. The setting up by the Commission of this registry across the whole EU will be positive and will hopefully do a lot to ensure that financial services which are hiding cash, including the ill-gotten gains of criminal gangs, etc., can be found and traced. While I welcome the powers that it gives to the Criminal Assets Bureau of the Garda, it would be remiss of me not to point out that we are doing something about this at the last minute. There are just ten days to go. Why are we in this position? We always ask these questions with regard to that. It always seems to be the last minute but we are where we are.

The protocol will certainly assist competent authorities across the EU to trace the proceeds of crime, which is welcome. The main issue that the protocol will solve is the time delay that many authorities across the EU experience when they are asking for banking information from their counterparts in other countries. I know that issue has been a difficulty for the Criminal Assets Bureau, An Garda Síochána, the Revenue Commissioners and other agencies of the State when trying to find where money has been or where bank accounts have been opened in other countries. The time delay is crucial when it comes to tracking and freezing financial assets belonging to gangland figures or to other criminals. It is also important to point out that hopefully this legislation and the ability to track and trace in this matter will be a deterrent to young people who are often duped into or attracted to this type of thing.

There have been recent reports in the media of younger people unwittingly taking part in money laundering with their Revolut accounts. This primarily happens because the accounts are based outside of the State. What often negatively affects the prosecution or tracing of these funds is the delay. It is sometimes the case that, when a person decides to launder money across jurisdictions in the EU, the delay works to the benefit of the criminals concerned. It is important to point out these are not victimless crimes. They have an impact on communities because much of the money hidden in these criminal bank accounts has been garnered by criminal gangs who have been a scourge in our communities in many urban areas with drugs and all the difficulties around that. The Minister of State mentioned Ireland has many large multinational corporations and big companies in the financial services sector, technology and so on. We recognise that tax evasion is also a crime and needs to be examined in this context.

Sinn Féin is in support of removing the barrier to tracing this kind of crime and imposing significant sanctions on those convicted. It will require allocation of resources and funding from the Minister of State. CAB will undoubtedly get busier and need to be properly resourced as it does more of this work. That means human and financial resources and increased capital funding. It is no surprise to anyone in this Chamber to know money laundering and these types of crimes have picked up significantly, particularly during the pandemic. This makes the work of CAB all the more demanding and it will require more resources to carry it out appropriately.

I am concerned there is no discussion on how Britain may or may not feed into this protocol post-Brexit. That is a serious issue because it is our closest neighbour. We have a land border, unfortunately, with that jurisdiction and that issue needs to be dealt with. With all these EU protocols, directives and co-operation in all kinds of fields, we find Britain is stepping outside of those and we need to understand how that works. Many people legitimately work on the northern side of the Border and live on the southern side. They may have banking details on both sides of the Border or have accounts in both jurisdictions, and across the water in Britain as well. There needs to be an idea as to how we can interact and ensure the same co-operation exists between that jurisdiction and this, even though they now fall outside the European Union. I hope the Minister of State will provide clarity on this and to see a similar framework in place for the other jurisdiction across the water.

In general, I welcome movement in the direction of greater co-operation and authorities in all states working together to combat criminal activity of this kind and deal with assets of criminal gangs and others, including people who evade tax in every state across the world. That has an impact on communities who cannot get resources or be looked after properly by legitimate governments who want to do so. We should be grateful we can co-operate and work to make that happen. I commend the work of the European Commission in developing this single register of bank accounts across the European Union. Hopefully it will be up and running as quickly as possible and the assets of criminal gangs and others will be traceable and something that we can put to bed. I want to commend the legislation and ensure it is, as the Minister of State said, relayed to the European Union as soon as next Wednesday that we are opting in.

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