Press Release: Senator Bacik Calls For Plan to Tackle Money Laundering

Labour Party Seanad Spokesperson on Justice, Equality and Law Reform
Thursday 11th March 2010

BACIK CALLS FOR FIVE YEAR PLAN TO TACKLE MONEY LAUNDERING

Speaking today in the Seanad on the Committee stage of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Bill 2009, Senator Ivana Bacik proposed an amendment to the Bill that would require the Minister for Justice to publish a five-year anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing strategy illustrating how the objects of the Act are to be pursued.

Speaking about the issue, Senator Bacik said

"We are all in agreement with the objectives of this Bill, and with the urgent need to develop effective measures to deal with money laundering, terrorist financing and white collar crime generally. The idea of requiring the Minister to develop a five-year strategy on how this will be done in practice is borrowed from the British legislation.”

Although the Minister did not accept the amendment, Senator Bacik asked him to review the position again before Report Stage, pointing out that such a strategy:

“ would provide a useful incentive to us to develop an effective multi-agency and cross-departmental approach to such crime. This is not just a matter for the Gardai and Revenue Commissioners, but also for the Financial Regulator, the Director of Corporate Enforcement and other bodies charged with regulating the financial sector. We have seen only too clearly how the failure to regulate the banks has damaged our economy. We must ensure that in the future measures adopted to combat fraud, money laundering and white collar crime are more effective in practice.”


ENDS.