Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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274. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when the 5th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive will be transposed here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13674/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, on 30 May 2018 the European Parliament adopted Directive EU 2018/849, the 5th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD). The Directive is available at the following link.

This Directive extends the rules on the use of virtual currencies, clarifies the requirements for the beneficial ownership register introduced by 4AMLD, places stricter requirements on the use of e-money products, and further clarifies the minimum enhanced due diligence protocol when conducting financial transactions with persons in high-risk third countries.

The legislation is technical and complex and the 18 month transposition period provided for in the Directive is shorter than the period which would normally be applied for similar instruments.

However work on transposition of this Directive is well advanced, with both my Department and the Department of Finance providing for transposition measures in our respective areas of competence.

The previous Government, in January 2019, approved the drafting of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Bill. The General Scheme of the Bill is available on my Department's website at the following link: www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/General_Scheme_-_Criminal_Justice_(Money_Laundering_and_Terrorist_Financing)_(Amendment)_Bill_2019.

While my Department is working on this Bill to transpose certain elements of the Fifth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive, it should be noted that the Department of Finance is also engaged in giving effect to certain provisions of the Directive, including those relating to:

- facilitating increasing transparency on who really owns companies and trusts by establishing beneficial ownership registers;

- ensuring the creation of, and access to, centralised national bank and payment account registers or central data retrieval.

Further information in that regard can obtained from the Department of Finance.