Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 17 October 2024
Public Accounts Committee
Financial Statements 2023 - Charities Regulatory Authority
9:30 am
Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
That is good. I asked about that because over the last two and a half years there has been significant interest in the IFSC and IFSC-based shell companies that often use charitable trust ownership structures. Some of these firms have billions in assets. We know about some examples from research carried out by academics in Trinity College showing that Russian-connected funds funnelled €118 billion through the IFSC over a 12-year period. Naturally with shell companies it is often very difficult to see what the parent company is and all those things, but some of these were connected to Gazprom and one was related to the Russian military. Of those 122 shell companies, over half had charitable trust ownership. Ms Delaney mentioned that some, under section 8, do not fall under the regulator and that is fine. Some do, as we know from the regulator's press statement. How do companies, structures or whatever one wants to call them acquire this kind of status? There is a concern because in many senses they are as far removed as can be imagined from a charity structure. I understand about section 8, but I would like the regulator to touch on that in general.
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