Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 April 2025
39. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance when the Central Bank will begin providing regular relevant datasets on the investment funds domiciled and or administered in Ireland making specific reference to unregulated funds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21467/25]
View answerStatistical data on regulated funds domiciled in Ireland are disseminated on a quarterly basis via a statistical release publication and tables on the Central Bank website www.centralbank.ie/statistics/data-and-analysis/other-financial-sector-statistics/investment-funds, and via the Open Data Portal opendata.centralbank.ie/dataset/?organization=investment-funds. Beyond the regular statistical releases, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) also shares data and insights through the Behind the Data www.centralbank.ie/statistics/statistical-publications/behind-the-data publication series.
On the specific matter of the sale of unregulated investment products in this jurisdiction, European and Irish legislation requires the regulation of financial services firms providing investment services in relation to investment products. The law is prescriptive and lists the various type of investment services and investment products falling to be regulated. Regulated firms may also sell investment products which are not specifically mentioned in the law (i.e. unregulated products). Consequently, regulated firms are not prohibited from providing services in relation to unregulated products.
In the course of the extensive report by the Funds Review Team in the Department of Finance for the Funds Review 2030 www.gov.ie/en/department-of-finance/publications/funds-sector-2030-a-framework-for-open-resilient-and-developing-markets-final-report/, data gaps have been identified, notwithstanding the extensive data reporting already required by the Central Bank. Data gaps also exist regarding unregulated investment fund activity in both Ireland and the EU. The Review recommended that the Financial Services Division continue to work with the Central Bank of Ireland to pursue cooperation at EU level regarding the potential to share data on unregulated funds reported to other authorities and to assess key data gaps in relation to unregulated funds. The report was published in October last year and work continues on its implementation.
