New figures reveal that just one request was made last year to Ireland’s Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBO)for details of a firm by a person who claimed legitimate interest in doing so. The request was rejected.
Journalists have already been denied unrestricted access to the RBO, which forces companies to reveal the true owners of the business. Registers have been set up across the EU under relevant legislation.
However, access to the Irish RBO was shut down in 2022 following a controversial ruling by the European Court of Justice.
It found public access to such registers was incompatible with business owners’ privacy rights enshrined in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The public now has a right to restricted access to the Irish RBO.
That ruling has even prompted countries such as Luxembourg to redraft their legislation to enshrine the limited access to its register in local law.
While the true ownership of most Irish companies can be tracked, there are often instances where firms are owned by corporate shareholders in jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Cyprus, for instance, where the true identity of the owners can be masked from the public.
Under legislation in Ireland, access to the RBO is available on an unrestricted basis to authorities including An Garda Síochána, the Department of Justice and Equality, the Property Services Regulatory Authority, the Law Society, designated accountancy bodies and the General Council of the Bar of Ireland.
Restricted access is available to people or entities required to identify and verify customers and beneficial ownership prior to forming a business relationship or carrying out an occasional transaction.
Restricted access is now only granted to a person who can demonstrate a “legitimate interest” in securing ownership information.
Such people must justify access by demonstrating they are engaged in the prevention, detection or investigation of money laundering and/or terrorist financing offences.
They must also prove the entity about which they are trying to secure ownership information is connected with people convicted in Ireland or elsewhere of money laundering or terrorist financing, or that the entity holds assets in a high-risk third country.
In response this week to a written question from Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Peter Burke, confirmed a total of 156,531 beneficial ownership reports were provided by the RBO last year. That compared to 130,596 in 2023.
However, last year just one request was received for information from a person who claimed legitimate interest.
“The RBO received only one request by a person with a legitimate interest in 2024 and this was refused as the person did not meet the criteria provided for in the regulations,” Mr Burke noted in his reply.
The compliance rate for companies with Ireland’s RBO is currently almost 89pc. The first cases for failing to adhere to the requirements of the RBO legislation are due to be heard in court next week.
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