Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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293. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide an update on the review of the Register of Beneficial Ownership and access to same; and if he will provide an update on the work completed in respect of related directives associated with same. [3104/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In November of 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that a provision of the EU anti-money laundering (AML) directive, under which information on the beneficial ownership of corporate and other legal entities held in central registers, must be provided to the general public, was invalid. The Court found that the provision interfered with the rights recognised in Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.

To ensure our domestic legislation continued to comply with the Court’s ruling a Statutory Instrument S.I. 308 of 2023, the European Union (AML: Beneficial Ownership of Corporate Entities) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 was enacted. This amends Regulations which governed two of Ireland’s registers of beneficial ownership information - the Register of Beneficial Ownership of Companies and Industrial & Provident Societies (RBO), which operates under the auspices of the Companies Registration Office, and the Central Register of Beneficial Ownership of Irish Collective Asset-management Vehicles, Credit Unions and Unit Trusts, which is operated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Following the ECJ ruling, which invalidated indiscriminate general access by the public, the co-legislators have taken further measures to ensure that the framework for public access is on the basis of a demonstrable legitimate interest, which in turn is applied consistently across the Union. To this end, Directive (EU) 2024/1640 (‘AMLD6’), was agreed by the EU Council in May of 2024.

In this regard, it should be noted the EU Commission has recently surveyed all Member States in terms of their respective processes and procedures with respect to the access of their Beneficial Ownership central registers with a view to implementing this harmonised, EU-wide approach.

Accordingly, the new AML framework sets out categories of persons that are presumed to have a legitimate interest, and additionally requires Member States to grant access, on a case-by-case basis, to any other person who can demonstrate a legitimate interest with respect to the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing. Articles 10, 12 and 14 of the 6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive refer.

Specifically, Article 14 inter alia states ‘the Commission shall define, by means of implementing acts, technical specifications and procedures necessary for the implementation of access on the basis of a legitimate interest by the central registers referred to in Article 10. This framework will enable an access procedure, underpinned by standardised templates for requesting access; granting or refusing access; along with procedures for mutual recognition of legitimate interest and procedures for notifications of revocation of access. The implementing acts will be in place by 10 July of 2025.

The deadline for the transposition of the elements of the Directive dealing with the Beneficial Ownership of corporate entities and trusts, as per article 10(6), is 10 July of 2026. The Deputy should note that the associated work on this has already commenced by my officials.