Rubles and Euro notes. The head of the Department of Finance’s anti-money laundering unit, Brenda McVeigh, says Russian money could be move through Ireland without Irish authorities being able to do anything about it. Photograph: iStockmoney moving through funds set up in Ireland, as sanctions were “unenforceable” in practice, a high-ranking civil servant has said.“Our legislation doesn’t work but we are all supposed to keep very quiet about that,” the finance official said.
Ireland and the rest of the European Union introduced a wide range of sanctions on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine last year, which included measures to freeze assets of sanctioned companies and individuals and stop the movement of Russian money.The finance official said as a result sanctions did not amount to “a hill of beans” in practice.
The department official said a “very fundamental review” was needed of the sanctions regime, while also questioning whether Ireland had “the resources” to properly enforce the measures.