Out-Law News 2 min. read

New Irish anti-corruption law passes through parliament


Legislation which will modernise and consolidate Ireland's anti-bribery laws has been approved by both chambers of the country's parliament.

The Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Bill will now be passed to the Irish president, Michael D Higgins, to be signed into law.

Corporate crime expert Dermot McGirr of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that businesses would be required to prepare new anti-corruption policies and procedures to comply with the new legislation. Once in force, the bill will introduce a number of new offences as well as expanding the scope of Irish anti-corruption laws beyond targeting bribery of public officials to businesses operating across all sectors.

"This is a key development to note for all businesses operating in Ireland, as compliance with the new legislation will entail, amongst other things, the adoption of new anti-corruption policies and procedures, in particular around due diligence exercises and other reasonable steps which they should undertake in order to avoid the commission of certain offences under the legislation," he said.

"Another important issue that Irish businesses will need to consider is how the new legislation will be addressed in their supply chain contracts, both in terms of contractually flowing down anti-corruption obligations and risk allocation," he said.

Once in force, the new legislation will repeal and replace seven existing Prevention of Corruption Acts, which date from between 1889 and 2010. It will criminalise both 'active' and 'passive' corruption, which broadly correspond to the offering and accepting of a bribe; as well as active and passive 'trading in influence', which is to do with promising an undue advantage to someone who claims to be able to exert improper influence over the decisions of a public official. The offences will apply regardless of whether the alleged ability to exert improper influence existed, or whether the supposed influence led to the intended result.

The bill will also criminalise any act of an Irish public official carried out in the course of their official position with the intent of corruptly obtaining an advantage for a third party, regardless of whether or not a third party was involved. It will also criminalise the use of confidential information obtained by a public official through their office for a corrupt purpose. These proposed offences reflect the recommendations of the Mahon tribunal into corrupt payments to politicians, which ran from 1997 to 2012.

The offences created by the bill will apply to Irish businesses and individuals wherever in the world the corrupt acts take place, and regardless of whether the acts are a criminal offence in that particular jurisdiction. Where the offence is committed by an individual with the intention of creating an advantage for a company, then the company as well as the individual may be liable for the offence unless the company can show that it took all reasonable steps and exercised due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence.

The bill will also create more severe penalties for businesses and individuals that engage in corrupt behaviour, of up to 10 years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine in respect of the main corruption offences. The courts will also be given the power to remove certain public officials from office, and to exclude them from holding office for up to 10 years, subject to certain safeguards. The bill also expands on existing seizure and forfeiture laws by allowing the courts to order the forfeiture of assets equal to the value of the bribe as an alternative to forfeiture of the bribe itself.

Justice minister Charlie Flanagan said that the bill "represents a complete modernisation of our anti-corruption laws".

"Providing one modern statute will make the law more accessible," he said.

"This is a robust piece of legislation with very strong penalties … In passing this bill, we have provided for many recommendations made to us by the OECD, the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations monitoring bodies. We will face a number of these evaluations in the coming months, and I am confident this legislation will stand up to scrutiny on the international stage," he said.

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