TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has told the Dáil that three Irish-based companies linked to Russian individuals or banks who’ve been sanctioned by the EU have so far been identified.  

Martin was speaking in response to a question from Catherine Murphy TD of the Social Democrats who asked the Taoiseach what Ireland was doing to “close any loopholes and ensure there is no place for dirty money to hide in this country”.

“We know that tens of billions of Russian money has been funnelled through Ireland using financial services operations in the IFSC and entities called limited partnerships,” Murphy said.

“One of the attractions of limited partnerships is that there is no requirement to publicly disclose by whom they are really owned.”

In response, Martin said: 

“The Central Bank of Ireland has undertaken an initial review of the links between the approximately 3,000 Irish domiciled special purpose entities and any links between them and Russian entities. Some 34 of these 3,000 entities have a Russian sponsor, meaning that they were established on behalf of a Russian company.

The total assets of these special purpose entities is approximately €36 billion, largely comprised of loans to Russian companies. Of these 34 entities, three have been identified as being directly linked to individuals or financial institutions covered in the 23 February round-up of EU sanctions. Work is ongoing in respect of the subsequent sanction rounds. 

The EU has introduced several rounds of sanctions against Russia as a reaction to the recognition of separatist regions of eastern Ukraine and then Russia’s subsequent invasion.

The 23 February sanctions referred to by the Taoiseach are sanctions against the 351 members of the Russian State Duma which voted for recognition and an additional 27 individuals. 

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Subsequently sections named Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov specifically.

An Taoiseach also said the in terms of investment funds the Central Bank has advised that total Russian assets held at 31 December 2021 are estimated at €11.4 billion or 0.3% of the total Irish fund assets of €3.8 trillion.