A Freedom of Information (FoI) appeal revealed that the Irish government does not hold a record of the actual beneficiaries of the Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP). The lack of transparency raises concerns about the monitoring of the scheme, which was established in 2012 to attract investment into the Irish economy. Despite warnings about the challenges of conducting anti-money laundering checks, the government has never disclosed who received Irish visas or where investments and endowments from applicants went.
The Immigrant Investor Programme opened residency in the State to non-Europeans with 'at least €2 million' in personal wealth. Photograph: Bryan O'Brienfor millionaire immigrants will remain hidden in State files, after a Freedom of Information appeal showed the Government “does not hold” a record of the actual beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries included property groups Bartra and Fitzwilliam, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork and housing charities iCare and the Peter McVerry Trust, but their involvement was never set out by the department.stirred anxiety about due diligence checks becoming “extremely difficult”. Ministers also questioned the suitability of wealthy people with “no significant links” to the State apart from the visa scheme providing money for cultural, social and economic use.
The dearth of records was revealed when The Irish Times made an appeal to the Office of the Information Commissioner, challenging the department’s refusal to provide FoI access to the names of IIP beneficiaries. The office reviews FoI decisions by public bodies. The appeal cited the public interest in transparency on “interplay between the State, business and wealthy people” seeking Irish residency.
Advice to Minister for Justice Helen McEntee recognised the need to guard against 'potentially unprofessional, unethical, inppropriate or unlawful practices' in the Immigrant Investor Programme. Photograph: Alan Betson “While the records released in part to date may well contain details of some beneficiaries, they simply cannot be regarded as lists of the actual investment/endowment beneficiaries under the IIP scheme since the start of 2020 and ‘the amount of money raised in each case’ as some of the purported beneficiaries were not, in fact beneficiaries,” said the ruling.
“During its initial processing of the request, the Department provided the applicant with two lists of purported granted applications, including the investment type and monetary amount in each case. It redacted all entries under the heading ‘Business Name’, ie the projects or companies that had received funding through the IIP scheme,” the ruling said.
Immigrant Investor Programme Ireland Transparency Anti-Money Laundering Government
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