7. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the action he is taking to tackle dark money in the Irish financial system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48197/26]

Sentiment score: 0.01

There is a significant issue with the amount of criminal money laundering going through Europe. There is €647 billion in crime proceeds washed through Europe every year. We have €5 trillion in domiciled investment funds hosted in Ireland. The Garda has warned of an explosion in the recruitment of money mules. What is the Government doing to address dark money? I am aware of the action plan but there are significant gaps in it I wish to highlight, including on enforcement. What is Government doing to address that?

Sentiment score: -0.05

As the Tánaiste said, there are 30 actions in the action plan but none of them address the chronic under-resourcing of enforcement. This has been flagged for years and we have a situation where billions and billions are being funnelled through Ireland. The Garda has a backlog of tens of thousands of money laundering cases waiting to be examined. The financial intelligence unit and the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau are grossly under-resourced. It is fine to have the action plan and the aspirations but we have tens of thousands of unexamined cases. It is have been flagged that the area is chronically under-resourced but nowhere in the action plan does the Government commit to putting the resources into enforcement, so it does not add up to much. The resourcing of enforcement has to be looked at if the Government is going to take this area seriously. I have no reason to think it is not but if it does not put the resources into enforcement. then I can legitimately ask how serious it is about this.

Sentiment score: -0.03

The other key gap is the national risk assessment identified serious issues and significant risks with regard to crypto assets, yet the action plan only has two measures on such assets and misses a whole range of risks. It misses, for example, any scrutiny of peel chains where criminals break large crypto amounts into small, tiny transfers to hide the trail. It misses any analysis of unhosted crypto wallets that are not tied to any regulated provider making transparency harder to trace, as well as any mention of the use of crypto to buy high-value goods, which is a common laundering method. It is fine to have the action plan and references to crypto but key crypto issues identified in the national risk assessment plan are missing from the action plan altogether. Why are they missing? Why are they not being addressed? Is the Tánaiste not concerned about these things, which were seriously flagged in the national risk assessment? How come they are not reflected in the action plan? Why have them in the national risk assessment but not in the action plan? How did that happen and why?

Sentiment score: -0.27