Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

Amendment No. 4 is a Government amendment. Amendments Nos. 4, 5, 7 to 11, inclusive, and 14 are related and may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed. There is a printing error in amendment No. 7; a comma is missing.

Government amendment No. 4:

In page 19, subsection (1)(c), lines 23 to 25, to delete "and in relation to which the information requested can be provided by the financial institution concerned within a reasonable time,".

The amendments proposed are being put forward following further discussions with the Irish Bankers Federation and the Garda Síochána since the Bill was published. The majority are technical amendments intended to clarify the meaning of the provisions in the Bill and to facilitate full compliance by financial institutions with the terms of the 2001 protocol between member states of the European Union.

The references to "reasonable time" in section 11(1)(c) and in the definition of "account information order" are being deleted. Amendments Nos. 4 and 7 deal with that issue. A new section 11(2) is being included instead to deal with the issue of timescales for compliance. Amendment No. 11 deals with that. The Irish Bankers Federation expressed concern about the term "reasonable time". What might be a reasonable time for compliance to financial institutions might be unreasonable for those who are investigating crime and for that reason it is now being proposed at section 11(2) that the timescale for compliance with account information will be a time within which a financial institution can reasonably be expected to provide the information sought and where difficulties are encountered, this timescale can be extended by the applicant for the order or in a further notice in writing following consultation with the financial institution concerned.

Amendments Nos. 5 and 10 deal with the question of different versions of persons' names. The Irish Bankers Federation advised my Department that a financial institution would not know variations of a name unless any such variations are specified in the order. In other words, financial institutions cannot be expected to look at similar names if these variations are not brought to their attention. A financial institution would not have the capacity to identify accounts on which a person is authorised to sign in a manner which could be identified at system level. Accordingly, I propose amendments Nos. 9 and 10 concerning the definition of "account information" and "account monitoring order", which provides that a different version of a person's name will be specified in the order.

Amendment No. 9 also provides that a financial institution shall state if it has become aware of any other accounts on which the listed person is authorised to operate. These amendments are intended to facilitate compliance with the financial transaction provisions of the Bill to the greatest possible extent and also to give full extent to the provisions in Article 1 of the 2001 protocol.

Amendment No. 14 is introduced in view of the concerns expressed by the Irish Bankers Federation that section 12 as currently drafted is very wide-ranging and would be difficult to apply in practice. The type of information which would fall within the terms of the section as currently drafted could be interpreted to include transactions to and from the specified accounts such as payment of bank loans and utility bills. While it may not always be initially clear what information may be required for the purpose of a criminal investigation, I accept there may be a need to allow for a narrowing of the scope of a request to avoid an unwieldy and unnecessary burden on the financial institution concerned.

Amendment No. 14 allows for a notice to be made and for account information or an account monitoring order to be modified by narrowing the information sought from all transactions on the account, which may initially be sought, to those found at a later stage to clearly apply to the scope of the criminal investigation under way.