Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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308. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the measures he plans to take following the Europol report that shows Ireland as third highest in the European Union for reports that specifically relate to the suspected financing of terrorism. [39122/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The very high level of reporting identified in the Europol report reflects the importance of the Irish financial services sector and the high volume of international transactions passing through it.

While all such reports are followed up by an Garda Síochána, the overwhelming majority prove, on investigation, to have no links of concern.

In order to reinforce this investigative capacity, additional resources have also been allocated to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) within An Garda Síochána with the introduction of ‘goAML’ on 12th June 2017.

goAML is an IT software solution specifically designed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for use by FIUs throughout the world, which ensures the filtering of Suspicious Transaction Reports to identify potential links to Terrorist Financing.

The FIU now requires reporting entities to state what the "Report Indicator" is when completing an STR on goAML. Terrorist Financing is one of these indicators and ensures that each STR with this report indicator of Terrorist Financing receives a higher priority.

It should also be noted that An Garda Síochána have achieved a number of well publicised successes in recent months utilising security and operational intelligence to disrupt terrorist activities which serve to further demonstrate the effectiveness of on-going counter-terrorism and TF investigations.