Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

We are transposing what is already in the main directive and the implementation directive. A certain bar is put in place by that directive, and it would be wrong to lower that bar because we could then be bringing in myriad other people with no relevance to this type of legislation. The concept of politically exposed persons is used to allow the legislation to take account of those who are former politicians or high-ranking officials and who are in some way evading justice. There are other laws that would take care of lower ranking officials or members of the armed forces. As I said, the aim is to replicate what is in the directive. We do not see any point in going further than this. With regard to the definition of an international body, I would have thought it would be up to the court to decide if there were no definition in the directive or the legislation.