Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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119. To ask the Minister for Finance the way in which he will comply with the European Union (Anti-Money Laundering Directive: Beneficial Ownership of Corporate Entities) Regulations 2016, statutory instrument number 560 of 2016; the steps that have been taken to ensure that all corporate State bodies comply; and his plans to redraft the statutory instrument to reflect the requirements of the directive and provide more guidance to all Irish corporates as to the meaning of the requirements. [38735/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Article 30 of the 4th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4AMLD 2015/849)requires all EU Member States to put into national law provisions around beneficial ownership information for companies and legal entities that are incorporated within the State.  The deadline set for this is June 2017.

In consultation with officials from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Office of the Parliamentary Council, it was decided that Ireland should transpose Article 30 in the following two stages:

- Stage one, a regulation to was introduced to require companies and legal entities to take all reasonable steps to gather and hold information on their beneficial ownership in their own in-house corporate beneficial ownership registers.

- Stage two, will require companies and legal entities to centrally file this information to a central beneficial ownership register once it is established.

This two stage process is designed to enable corporate entities to identify their beneficial owners in advance of the establishment of the central beneficial ownership register and therefore be in a position to transmit it to the register at the earliest available opportunity after the transposition deadline.

The 'European Union (Anti-Money Laundering: Beneficial Ownership of Corporate Entities) Regulations 2016', (S.I. 560 of 2016) require that all relevant companies and legal entities incorporated within the State including any State bodies that fall into this category should have regard to the definition of 'beneficial ownership' set out in article 3(6) of 4AMLD (2015/849).

The regulations require that any corporate or legal entity that falls within this category must take all reasonable steps to obtain and hold adequate, accurate and current information in respect of its beneficial owners. In order to ensure that all corporate entities are in a position to comply with this statutory instrument, the Companies Registration Office has circulated relevant information in an electronic communication to all registered companies. The circular informed companies of the new requirement to obtain and hold information on their beneficial ownership. 

As mentioned above, the completion of the transposition of Article 30 is a two step process and a further statutory instrument to establish a central beneficial ownership register will need to be completed by the end of June 2017. My officials are responding to queries on a case by case basis and are actively planning to work with key stakeholders in advance of the establishment of the central register for beneficial ownership information. My Department cannot provide legal advice on specific cases as the onus ultimately rests on companies and other relevant legal entities to comply appropriately with these new EU transparency measures.