Written answer
Departmental Policies
665. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 71 of 25 June 2026, his plans for the State to take ownership of any money taken from dormant investment funds under a future dormant funds scheme. [54802/26]
Comment on this
The Department is aware that many dormant funds have residual issues which prevent them from seeking revocation of authorisation, the most common of which are;
• uncontactable shareholders whereby the remaining monies cannot be paid out;
• remaining shareholders have not submitted documents to comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements and therefore monies cannot be paid out; and
• issues with remaining assets preventing their liquidation.
The issue of Dormant Funds was addressed in the Funds Review 2030 published by the Department of Finance and as outlined in PQ 48250/26. The recommendation was made that industry should consider the feasibility and design of a scheme for existing and future dormant funds. The new scheme should identify a role for industry to support investors tracing unclaimed monies and identify how it would handle investor claims.
The Dormant Funds differ from the existing Dormant Accounts Scheme for credit institutions, in that after a Fund is closed, it ceases to exist. Whereas, in the case of the Dormant Accounts, in most cases if an account enters the scheme and the monies are transferred to a fund managed by the NTMA, the credit institution still exists and if an owner comes forward in the future, they can still resolve their case.
Further to the Funds Review recommendation, the Dormant Funds issue remains an area of focus for industry. Irish Funds are currently reviewing how best to approach this from a legal perspective as they believe any solution needs to be based in legislation.
Any feasibility study on the use of unclaimed monies, prepared by industry will be carefully assessed by relevant officials in Government and in the Central Bank of Ireland. The drafting of any legislation required will solely be a matter for Government.