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The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton T.D., today [Wednesday] announced that he has secured the Government’s approval for Ireland to opt in to the EU negotiations for a Directive providing for criminal sanctions for insider dealing and market manipulation.

The proposed Directive will, for the first time, provide for a common set of offences across the EU and require Member States to provide at least a minimum level of criminal sanctions for those offences in their national laws. The offences will be the market abuse offences of insider dealing and market manipulation. The Directive is intended to tackle the current situation where investors who trade on inside information or manipulate markets by spreading false or misleading information can avoid sanctions by taking advantage of the differences in the laws of the 27 EU Member States. It is also designed to improve cross-border enforcement.

The negotiations for the Directive are at an early stage and are part of negotiations on a range of new laws to enhance the overall EU regulatory system for financial markets, including the proposed Regulation on markets in financial instruments (MIFIR) and the proposed Regulation on market abuse.

Minister Bruton said:

"Minister Shatter has over the past year put in place a series of measures to improve Ireland’s laws to combat white collar crime. However as financial markets become more and more international in their operations, it also becomes important to protect their integrity with strong regulatory and sanctioning regimes that can be enforced across borders.

"By opting in at this early stage in these negotiations, Ireland can work with other Members States to design a modern and effective EU framework for combatting serious financial crime"

Having got the Government’s agreement, the Minister will next seek the approval of the Houses of the Oireachtas for Ireland to participate in the adoption and application of this proposed Directive.

The proposal for a Directive on criminal sanctions for insider dealing and market manipulation defines the market abuse offences that should be regarded in all Member States as criminal offences, namely insider dealing and market manipulation where they are committed intentionally.