Corporate Governance

Tuesday, 10 December 2019

Ceisteanna (135)

Robert Troy

Ceist:

135. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Finance the progress to date in tabular form regarding each of the action points made in the report Measures to Enhance Ireland’s Corporate, Economic and Regulatory Framework, published in November 2017; if each such action point has been completed, not completed or is ongoing, respectively; and the revised deadlines for action points not delivered by original timelines committed. [51396/19]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Finance

The Department of Finance is the lead Department for ten key actions identified in the report, Measures To Enhance Ireland’s Corporate, Economic And Regulatory Framework. The majority of these actions have already been implemented and the others are in progress for implementation. The attached table provides details on the relevant action points.

Appendix – Table of Actions (Department of Finance Actions)Action Point No.	Action Point	Timeline	Relevant Bodies	Lead/Owner	Progress
					CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Publish a progress report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Report of the Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis, which includes corporate governance measures
12	Publish Progress Report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Report of the Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis	Q4 2017	Department of Finance	Department of Finance	Near completion – Draft Report prepared and being considered.
13	Monitor the implementation of further recommendations from the Report of the Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis	Ongoing	Department of Finance	Department of Finance	Ongoing – Draft Report contains an assessment to November 2019 of the implementation of the recommendations from the Report of the Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis.

ENHANCING THE POWERS OF THE AUTHORITIES TO IDENTIFY AND COMBAT ECONOMIC AND REGULATORY OFFENCES IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR
Examine whether any additional powers and resources are required to combat tax evasion and avoidance as part of Budget 2018 and its associated Finance Bill
18	Revenue, in conjunction with the Department of Finance, will continue to examine whether any additional powers or measures are currently required. Any such measures will then be proposed to the Minister for Finance for inclusion in Finance Bill 2018.	Ongoing	Department of Finance, Revenue Commissioners	Department of Finance	Completed - Funding allocated to Revenue in Budget 2018 will support them in undertaking a number of initiatives, including: - Significant reform of the administration of the PAYE system; and - The enhancement of ICT systems capacity for data matching and data analytics.
					Implement MIFID II
19	Implement MiFID II, which broadens the powers of the Central Bank to remove (members of) the executive board from the management of [“failing”] MiFID companies	Q1 2018	Department of Finance, Central Bank of Ireland	Department of Finance	Completed
20	Extend the Market Abuse Rules to a wider cross-section of individuals under MiFID II	Q1 2018	Department of Finance, Central Bank of Ireland	Department of Finance	Completed
21	MiFID II Bill providing for criminal sanctions for serious infringements of MiFID II/MiFIR	Q1 2018	Department of Finance, Central Bank of Ireland	Department of Finance	Completed –Markets in Financial Instruments Act 2018 was enacted in October 2019
Implement the automatic exchange of financial account information under the global Common Reporting Standard (CRS)
22	Implement the automatic exchange of financial account information under the global Common Reporting Standard (CRS)	Q4 2017	Department of Finance, Revenue Commissioners	Revenue Commissioners	Completed - the first information exchange began in September 2017.
COUNTERING MONEY LAUNDERING AND CORRUPTION
Respond to the recommended actions of the Financial Action Task Force Report on Ireland’s Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism framework (due to be published September 2017).
23	Respond to the recommended actions of the FATF Report on Ireland’s Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism framework	Ongoing	Department of Justice and Equality and the various Departments and agencies involved in AML/CFT	Department of Finance	In progress (no deadline) – The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Report on Ireland’s Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) found that overall, Ireland has a sound and substantially effective regime to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing. It also made a series of detailed recommendations in regard to all aspects of Ireland’s AML/CFT regime. An action plan to address those recommendations is in place and has been significantly progressed. Ireland underwent its second post review follow-up in October 2019 and received upgrades to 11 of its review findings and was removed from enhanced follow-up. Ireland is now compliant or largely compliant with 33 of the 40 FATF recommendations and partially compliant with the remaining 7.
Establish Registers of Beneficial Ownership for Companies, Industrial and Provident Societies (cooperatives) & ICAVs
25	Establish a central register for beneficial ownership of companies and industrial and provident societies	Q1 2018	Department of Finance, Department of Justice and Equality, Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Companies Registration Office, Office of the Attorney General, Revenue Commissioners	Department of Finance	This has been delivered. SI 110 of 2019 establishing the register entered into force in March. The register went live in July with a filing deadline of 22 November 2019.
26	Transpose Article 31 4AMLD regarding trusts and similar legal arrangements	Q1 2018	Department of Finance, Department of Justice and Equality, Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Companies Registration Office, Office of the Attorney General, Revenue Commissioners	Department of Finance	The Department of Finance concluded transposition of Article 31 4AMLD. This was delivered via SI 16 of 2019. The Department is currently transposing Article 31 of 5AMLD. This work is well advanced and is expected to be concluded soon.