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Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris TD is today launching Ireland’s firstNational Anti-Money Laundering, Countering Financing of Terrorism and Countering Proliferation Financing Strategy,setting out a comprehensive plan to strengthen the State’s response to financial crime and protect Ireland’s economy, businesses and citizens.

The Strategy underpins the most significant strengthening of Ireland’s anti-money laundering framework in years and delivers a whole-of-government approach to preventing criminals, fraudsters and terrorist financiers from exploiting Ireland’s financial system.

Preparation of this Strategy closely follows on from the recently-published2026 National Risk Assessment (NRA) on Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Proliferation Financingand its associatedPriority Action Implementation Plan.

Launching the Strategy, the Tánaiste said it sends a clear message that Ireland will continue to take a robust approach to tackling organised crime, strengthening financial integrity and maintaining the country’s reputation as one of the safest and most trusted places in Europe to do business.

The National Anti-Money Laundering Strategy is built around five strategic priorities:

The Strategy includes a series of significant reforms that will:

Launching the Strategy, Tánaiste Simon Harris TD said:

“Financial crime causes real harm to people, families, businesses and communities across Ireland. Behind every scam, every fraud and every money laundering operation are real victims.

“Criminal organisations are becoming increasingly sophisticated. They are exploiting new technologies, crypto-assets and complex international financial networks to conceal criminal profits. Government must continue to stay ahead of those threats.

“This Strategy underpins the most significant strengthening of Ireland’s anti-money laundering framework in years.

“It will give our law enforcement agencies stronger tools, improve intelligence sharing across the State, strengthen oversight of emerging risks and ensure Ireland continues to meet the highest international standards.

“Today’s launch sends a clear message: Ireland will not be a safe place to launder criminal proceeds. We will continue to pursue organised criminals, protect our financial system and safeguard Ireland’s reputation as one of the safest and most trusted places in Europe to live, work and do business.”

“Implementation of the Strategy is already underway and will be delivered through close cooperation between Government departments, law enforcement agencies, regulators and the private sector.

“Together, the reforms will strengthen Ireland’s ability to detect, prevent and disrupt money laundering, terrorist financing and other forms of financial crime while protecting citizens, businesses and the integrity of Ireland’s financial system.”

Notes for editorsPreparation of the Strategy follows consultation with the Anti-Money Laundering Steering Committee (AMLSC), which in turn provides national level oversight and alignment across Departments and Agencies in this area. This takes account of the National Risk Assessment, which in turn follows extensive consultation with private and public sector stakeholders. Central to this Strategy is a Whole-of-Government approach, as is evidenced by the broad range of actions which will be implemented.

2026 National Risk Assessment (NRA) on Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Proliferation Financingcan be found here:https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/07bf6929/National_Risk_Assessment_Ireland_2026.pdfThe NRA provides a comprehensive, whole-of-system evaluation of the threats and vulnerabilities in relation to money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing.

National Risk Assessment Priority Actions Implementation Plan 2026can be found here:https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/992935c6/Priority_Action_Implementation_Plan_-_2026.pdfOverarching this specific Strategy, the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration has separately prepared an Economic Crime and Corruption Strategy, which takes a cross-government, whole-of-society approach to strengthen Ireland’s end-to-end response to economic crime and corruption.

The inter-agency group tasked with Countering the Financing of Terrorism and Countering Proliferation Financing had its inaugural meeting recently. It is a Subgroup of the AMLSC and its establishment is contained in the Priority Actions Implementation Plan. Its purpose is to provide a central coordination mechanism between relevant stakeholders to examine Ireland’s CFT/CPF framework and establish what if any actions, changes or related initiatives are required to support the framework.

Statutory Instruments introducing new EU requirements arising from the 6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive related to access to the national beneficial ownership registers based on legitimate interest were concluded recently.

These apply to theCentral Register of Beneficial Ownership of Trusts (CRBOT)operated by the Revenue Commissioners, theCentral Register of Beneficial Ownership of Companies and Industrial and Provident Societies (RBO)operated by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and theRegister of Beneficial Ownership of Certain Financial Vehicles (CFV)under the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI).

The Strategy also provides for the extension of anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism obligations to crypto-asset transfers, requiring information on the originator and beneficiary to accompany transfers. These requirements contained in the EU Transfer of Funds Regulation promote greater transparency and traceability of transactions (the so-called ‘Travel Rule’) and apply AML / CFT obligations on crypto asset transfers. The bulk of this has been implemented with these final elements introducing new anti-money laundering obligations for crypto-asset service providers, requiring enhanced checks on transfers involving private crypto wallets and stricter due diligence when dealing with overseas crypto firms.