Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Today we heard the powerful and moving testimony of President Zelenskyy. We all expressed our solidarity and support for Ukraine and its people as they suffer during this brutal war. We need to do all we can, even as a militarily neutral country. That starts by looking at domestic policy and legislation.

We know that the International Financial Services Centre, IFSC, has become a major offshore financial centre for the Russian economy and I have been raising this issue since 2020. Most people are now aware of it as an issue. The Central Bank recently confirmed that almost half the Russian connected vehicles in the IFSC are linked to sanctioned individuals and companies. We know that the IFSC was previously used for sanction avoidance.

I will raise the so-called golden visa and golden passport schemes, which allow elite foreign investors to buy residency and citizenship. Back in 2020, the EU Commission issued letters of formal notice to Cyprus and Malta regarding their golden passport schemes. Both countries are major havens for laundering Russian money. In March, the EU Commissioner for Justice noted that the phasing out of citizenship by investment schemes "is fully in line with the Commission's priorities".

I note that the Government has now frozen applications for these visas and passports for Russian investors. I note the same has been done in the UK. The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said that was being done to stop "corrupt elites who threaten our national security and push dirty money around our cities". Given these concerns and the historical role the IFSC has played, it is high time for an audit because there are serious security risks and, potentially, fraudulent behaviour involved.

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