The Minister for Finance Micheal McGrath will present Ireland’s case to host the EU’s new Anti-Money Laundering Authority in Dublin during a hearing in the European Parliament today.
Ireland is competing against eight other member states, including France, Spain, Germany and Italy to host the agency, which would create an expected 400 jobs.
Dublin in 2017 narrowly lost out to Paris in the contest to host the European Banking Authority, which had to move from London after Brexit.
That was a bitter disappointment, not least because, following a tie between the Irish and French bids, the winning city was chosen from a hat.
Today Michael McGrath, accompanied by minister for financial services Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, will make a pitch to host the new Anti-Money Laundering Authority, or AMLA to MEPs on the civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee.
Following a European Court of Justice ruling, awarding the agency is now the joint work of the European Parliament and the Council – in other words, member states.
Both institutions will have 27 votes each, and the vote to choose the winner will be on February 22.
Ireland is expected to argue that it is the home to 500 global financial institutions, including 17 of the top 20 global banks, and that it has a linguistic, common law and dispute resolution advantage over other contenders.
The Department of Finance has led the diplomatic campaign over the past year, with support from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
