Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 446: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the degree to which provisions are being made to prevent money laundering; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31575/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 replaced the money laundering provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 1994 and transposed the requirements of the third EU Money Laundering Directive.

The Act strengthens Irish legislation on money laundering by creating broader money laundering offences and extending anti-money laundering regulatory systems.

The scope of the offence of money laundering was broadened substantially under the Act and now includes any concealment, conversion, handling etc. of property where a person knows, believes, or is reckless as to whether property represents the proceeds of "criminal conduct". Criminal conduct is defined (in section 6) to include any conduct that constitutes an offence, whereas formerly the definition was confined to indictable (serious) offences.

The Act provides that a "designated person" is required to carry out what are known as customer due diligence measures. These include verifying the identity of customers and monitoring their transactions in order to detect money laundering. Section 42 of the Act requires a "designated person" who knows, suspects or has reasonable grounds to suspect, on the basis of information obtained in the course of business, that another person has been or is engaged in money laundering or terrorist financing to report this to the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation and the Revenue Commissioners.

The Act defines a "designated person" to include a credit or a financial institution, an auditor, external accountant or tax adviser, a relevant independent legal professional, a trust or company service provider, a property service provider, a person who directs a private members club at which gambling activities are carried on, a person trading in goods in respect of transactions involving the receipt of cash of at least €15,000 or any other person of a prescribed class. The Act provides for designated persons to be supervised as regards their money-laundering prevention responsibilities by a relevant competent authority. Banks and other credit and financial institutions are supervised by the Central Bank, accountants by their relevant designated accountancy body, solicitors and barristers by the Law Society and Bar Council respectively and any remaining designated persons are supervised by an authority prescribed by the Minister. The Act for the first time designated the Minister for Justice and Equality as a competent authority for a number of sectors that were previously unsupervised for this purpose.