Ireland is developing a strategy to implement the European Court of Justice ruling on access to the Register of Beneficial Ownership of Companies.
The Irish Register of Beneficial Ownership (RBO) was created as part of a European Union policy to increase transparency in business and combat dirty money laundering. In 2016, Dublin introduced measures to identify the actual owners of commercial companies and, three years later, obliged firms to publicly disclose their identity. In 2021, the disclosure regime was extended to trusts.
However, in 2022, the EU Court of Justice ruled in two Luxembourg-based entities that EU directives on public access to beneficiary information constituted a serious interference with fundamental human rights to respect for private life and the protection of personal data. On this basis, EU member states have started blocking public access to registers.
Dublin, implementing the court ruling, initially denied access to the Irish beneficial ownership register altogether. Subsequently, it was decided that "designated persons" would have access to it. The content of the term has been the subject of some debate. Access to the register was given to agents of the tax service and other public authorities with jurisdiction to investigate financial crimes. Meanwhile, the RBO responds to enquiries about the definition of "designated persons" that the procedure has not been finalised and is subject to change. Experts consider the current system of access to the register of beneficiaries to be excessively restrictive and likely to have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the fight against dirty money laundering.
