I assume that the Minister will be familiar with the register of beneficial ownership, RBO, and the deadline for registering details on 22 November. The RBO website keeps collapsing. It was badly built in the first instance, with insufficient server capacity, and now it simply cannot cope with the number of people trying to log on and complete their registration. An extension to the filing deadline is needed. Can the Minister do anything to have the deadline extended in the interests of fairness, or at least make an allowance for people who have tried consistently to register but have failed to do so?

The deadline for registration of beneficial ownership is Friday, 22 November. A deadline was introduced following SI 110/2019, and I agree with its aims, namely, to prevent money laundering. Last week, Revenue's website crashed, and all the accountants and agents who were dealing with their clients' end-of-year registration are the same people dealing with the current issue. Their week last week was extended because of the crashing of the website. The deadline needs to be extended.

I draw the Minister's attention to the fines at play. Should a community centre that formed a company, a social economy company or a group water scheme - there are many small companies, which may be unaware of the necessity - fail to register, the penalty can be a fine of up to €500,000 or a term in jail. We would hate people to be unaware of the issue. We need to take the opportunity to make them aware and extend the deadline by at least one week. I ask the Minister to contact the Minister for Finance and do something.

It is a pity that the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, has left because it appears he blames the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and claims that it is her responsibility. Nobody seems to be taking responsibility for the power to extend the deadline beyond Friday. A statutory instrument was signed by the Minister for Finance on 22 March 2019, and the responsibility was then transferred to the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, under the auspices of the Companies Registration Office. To facilitate companies registering, the system did not go live when it was due to do so and was delayed by approximately one month, not going live until 29 June. As my colleague, Deputy Brassil, noted, in recent weeks the agents responsible for registering companies online have been preoccupied with the return of tax.

I ask that common sense prevail and that the Minister talk to the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, or the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and extend the deadline beyond Friday because only 30% of businesses due to register have done so to date, which means that 70% have not and will be liable for fines of anything between €5,000 and €500,000.

I will have the matter investigated as a matter of urgency with a view to having the deadline extended.

We have finished ahead of time, which is a record.

May I raise a second issue?

No.