Ireland's Corruption Offences Act 2018: Bribery, Trading in Influence and Corporate Liability

Ireland's anti-corruption law was rewritten in 2018. The new Act covers private-sector corruption as well as bribery of officials, reaches certain conduct abroad, and makes a company liable for what its employees and agents do. For accountants in practice or in finance roles in Ireland, that makes the Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Act 2018 relevant to client work, to a firm's own conduct and to internal controls. This guide summarises the Act as published in the Law Reform Commission's revised version and by the Department of Justice, and flags what we could not confirm. It sits alongside our guides to Ireland's anti-money laundering law for accountants.

When the Act applies

The Act was signed into law on 5 June 2018. According to the revised Act text, a commencement order (S.I. No. 298 of 2018) brought it into operation on 30 July 2018. The Department of Justice describes it as an overhaul of Ireland's anti-corruption law, with new offences, corporate liability and powers to seize and forfeit bribes.

Key definitions

The Act (section 2) says a person acts "corruptly" if they act with an improper purpose, personally or by influencing another person, including through false or misleading statements or by concealing or destroying documents. An "official" means an Irish official or a foreign official. Irish officials include members of the Oireachtas, judges, and officers, employees and members of Irish public bodies, including local councillors. Foreign officials include members of foreign governments and parliaments, foreign prosecutors and judges, and people acting for foreign public administrations or international organisations.

The main offences

• Active and passive corruption (section 5): offering, giving or agreeing to give, or requesting, accepting or agreeing to accept, a gift, consideration or advantage as an inducement or reward connected with someone's office, employment, position or business. This is not limited to public officials.
• Trading in influence (section 6): offering or accepting a benefit to induce someone to exert improper influence over an official, or for promising such influence. It does not matter whether the influence existed, was exerted or succeeded.
• Corruption by Irish officials (section 7): acting in office to obtain a corrupt benefit, or using confidential information obtained in office for that purpose.
• Facilitation (section 8): giving a benefit while knowing, or ought reasonably to know, that some of it will be used to facilitate an offence under the Act.
• False documents (section 9): corruptly creating or using a document known or believed to be materially false or misleading, intending to induce someone to act to another's prejudice.
• Intimidation (section 10): threatening harm to influence someone's conduct in their office, employment, position or business.

Section 9 is the one most relevant to finance teams, because falsified invoices, expense claims or accounting records can be the paper trail of a bribe.

Liability for companies and the "reasonable steps" defence

Under section 18(1), a company or other body corporate is guilty of an offence if a director, manager, secretary, other officer, shadow director, employee, agent or subsidiary commits an offence under the Act, intending to obtain or keep business or a business advantage. Under section 18(2), it is a defence for the body to prove that it took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid the offence. An officer who consented to, connived in, or wilfully neglected the offence can also be liable under section 18(3). The Department of Justice says the penalty for a company on conviction is an unlimited fine.

Conduct outside Ireland

As described in the revised Act, a person can be tried in Ireland if any act constituting the offence took place in the State, on an Irish ship or on an Irish-registered aircraft (section 11). Section 12 goes further for certain offences: where the act was done abroad it is an offence if it would be an offence in Ireland, and the person is an Irish official, an Irish citizen, a person resident in the State for the preceding 12 months, or an Irish company or body corporate, among other cases. We have not tested how that applies to a specific cross-border structure, so take legal advice for those.

Presumptions that shift the burden

• Gifts (section 14): where a benefit is given to an official or connected person and the giver had an interest in a listed function, such as tenders, licences, planning or investigations, the benefit is presumed corrupt unless the contrary is proved.
• Donations (section 15): for TDs, Senators, MEPs and local councillors, certain donations above the statutory limit that were not returned or notified are presumed corrupt where the donor had an interest in the recipient's functions.
• Enrichment (section 16): where an Irish official owns undeclared registrable property, it is presumed to derive from a corrupt benefit unless the contrary is proved.

Penalties

According to the revised Act's summary of section 17, trading in influence carries imprisonment of up to 5 years on conviction on indictment and up to 12 months on summary conviction. Most other offences carry up to 10 years' imprisonment on indictment and up to 12 months on summary conviction, along with fines and forfeiture. Irish officials convicted on indictment of certain offences can also lose their office and be barred from holding certain offices for up to 10 years. The Act also lets Gardaí seize suspected bribes and allows the Director of Public Prosecutions to apply to the Circuit Court for forfeiture on the civil standard of proof.

What this means for accountants

These are our suggestions, not official guidance. Because the "reasonable steps and due diligence" defence is the company's to prove, write down your anti-bribery controls: a gifts and hospitality register, approval limits, checks on agents and introducers, and a clear rule that fees are paid only against evidence of real services. Review unusual payments for the red flags in our money laundering red flags guide, since the same patterns appear in both. Remember that the beneficial owner of a counterparty may itself be an official, so link this to your beneficial ownership checks, as in our guide to the Irish register of beneficial ownership.

What we could not confirm

• We read the Act through the Law Reform Commission's revised text and the Department of Justice's commencement release; we did not read each section's full wording, so our summaries of sections 11 and 12 omit detail.
• The revised text carries annotations for later amendments, including a 2023 deletion in section 12, and we did not examine them.
• We did not read any Garda, DPP or Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement guidance on the Act, or case law on the section 18 defence.
• We did not review other Irish laws that touch on corruption, such as ethics-in-public-office rules or reporting duties, so this guide is not a complete map of Irish obligations.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Act cover private-sector bribery?

Yes. Section 5 covers gifts and advantages connected with someone's office, employment, position or business, and is not limited to public officials.

Can a company defend itself if an employee pays a bribe?

Under section 18(2), it is a defence to prove that the company took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid the offence.

Where can I find more training?

See our CPD courses for accountants and finance professionals.