Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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47. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to provide a full open access public register of beneficial ownership as part of the register that is being established under the European Union anti-money laundering requirements. [2561/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Articles 30 and 31 of the EU’s 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4AMLD) require each Member State to establish central registers of beneficial ownership information for corporates and other legal entities (companies) and for trusts which generate tax consequences.

Under the terms of 4AMLD the information in the central register for companies must be accessible by competent authorities and Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) for the purposes of combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The companies’ register must also be accessible by any person or organisation which can demonstrate a legitimate interest. There is no requirement under 4AMLD for full public access to the beneficial ownership register for Companies.

Similarly, the central register of beneficial ownership for trusts with a tax consequence must be accessible by competent authorities and Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) for the purposes of combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The provisions of these articles are currently being transposed by way of statutory instruments and are at an advanced stage. It is anticipated that these will be largely concluded by the end of March 2018.

Since 4AMLD was agreed, a number of further amendments were proposed by the Commission which are commonly referred to as the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD). Among the proposals were transparency related changes with regard to the central registers of beneficial ownership.  In December, under the Estonian EU Presidency, agreement was reached between Council and the European Parliament - the co-legislators - on 5AMLD.

Included in the changes are measures related to access to beneficial ownership registers. 5AMLD also extends the deadlines for transposition of the amendments to the 4AMLD which relate to the creation, operation and access to the central registers of beneficial ownership. However, until such time as the 5AMLD is published in the Official Journal and comes into force there is no timeline currently set for its transposition into domestic legal frameworks. In the meantime, preliminary work will continue on the necessary transposition of 5AMLD into domestic legislation.