Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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33. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 164 of 28 May 2024, the basis on which Ireland does not impose restrictive measures unilaterally; if this is a matter of Government policy or whether he is bound by law not to exercise the powers contained in Article 42 of the Criminal Activity (Terrorist Offences) Act 2005; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27371/24]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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34. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 164 of 28 May 2024, if he or his predecessors have ever exercised the powers contained in article 42 of the Criminal Activity (Terrorist Offences) Act 2005; if Ireland has previously imposed restrictive measures on those carrying out terrorist, terrorist-linked, or terrorist-financing activity in a domestic context by mechanisms other than EU-level sanctions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27372/24]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 33 and 34 together.

The Deputy may wish to note that Section 42 of the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act 2005 enables the Minister of Finance to make regulations for enabling provisions of acts to which this section applies to have full effect. This section of the 2005 Act applies solely to acts that are adopted by the EU, and that, in the opinion of the Minister for Finance, are for the purpose of, or will contribute to, combating terrorism through the adoption of specific restrictive measures, directed at persons, groups or entities, for the identification, detection, freezing or seizure of their assets of any kind.

As Minister for Finance, I frequently utilise the powers under Section 42, to give effect to penalties for breaches of EU restrictive measures in relation to two specific EU restrictive measures regimes, the ISIL / Al-Qaida regime under Council Regulation (EC) 881/2002, and the Combating Terrorism regime under Council Regulation (EC) 2580/2001. To date in 2024, I have implemented four statutory instruments utilising the powers provided under Section 42 of the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act to activate the penalties for new EU restrictive measures introduced under the regimes listed above.

Rather than imposing sanctions regimes unilaterally, Ireland applies sanctions that are adopted by the United Nations Security Council or by the European Union (EU). In broad terms, issues relating to the functioning of the Internal Market and the Common Commercial Policy are matters of EU competence. In contrast, to the extent to which Member States retain competence in areas such as entry of third country nationals into their territory and the import and export of arms, there can be greater scope for Member States to consider adopting national measures.

Sanctions are an important tool to promote the objectives of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). EU sanctions are always targeted, and seek to bring about a change in the policy or behaviour of the target of the measures. Sanctions measures can cover a wide variety of elements such as asset freezes, visa and travel bans and trade restrictions.

Sanctions in areas that fall under EU competence are implemented in EU Regulations, which are directly applicable in all Member States. These regulations typically deal with matters such as trade restrictions or the freezing of assets of individuals or legal entities. In order to criminalise any breach of the Regulations as a matter of Irish law, statutory instruments are made which provide that any person who contravenes certain provisions of a regulation will be guilty of an offence and liable to prosecution.