In recent years serious concerns have been expressed about immigrant investment programmes generally by The EU Commission, Council of Europe and OECD in a number of studies in relation to border security, money laundering, tax evasion and circumvention of EU law and that the Programme gave rise to issues of a broader public policy concern.
While the Minister was satisfied that the IIP was operated by her Department to the highest professional standards, the combination of these factors made it timely to close off the programme.
In closing the IIP the Government agreed that appropriate arrangements in relation to the orderly winding down of the Programme would be put in place. These arrangements have now been finalised.
The closure of the Programme does not affect existing projects or individuals already approved under the programme. Projects may proceed based on the Business Plan and funding amount as previously approved by the Minister. It is ultimately a matter for the project owner / sponsor to ensure delivery on an approved project within the timeframe set out in its business plan. The Department will however continue to monitor all projects going forward for delivery and compliance with IIP requirements, including use of the investment funding solely for delivery of the core capital project and not, for instance, for operational costs or investor agent fees.
In the event that any serious issues of concern come to the attention of the Department in relation to the delivery of a project it will take whatever appropriate action is necessary, and this may include reporting the matter to the relevant authorities, pausing the processing of further investor applications associated with the project or withdrawing the approval given for the project.
Where a project is approved all individual investor applications associated with that project will be examined and approved in due course subject to meeting the IIP criteria as published.
Project applications that were submitted prior to the closure will be processed as a priority.
Project applications that have been identified as having been submitted outside the allowed timeframe of the Government decision closing the Programme or those not having any investor associated with it, will be decided at the earliest opportunity by the Unit. It is expected that a small number of other categories of application will be decided soon also.
Given the volume of applications on hand, it is expected to take a number of years to process all remaining categories of application to final decision. The independent Evaluation Committee, which assesses project applications under the IIP, is committed to exploring new ways to potentially expedite the examination of project applications and reduce overall waiting times.
It should be noted that since the programme closed the IIP Unit has continued to submit project applications to the Evaluation Committee for consideration and recommendation, and both project and investor applications to the Minister for a decision and those decisions are continuing to issue.
The Committee makes a determination as to whether a project is suitable for IIP investment and if deemed suitable, the project application will be submitted to the Minister for Justice for final approval.
The Evaluation Committee has agreed to work with the Department in a helpful and constructive way in order to deal with the significant number of applications on hand.
The Evaluation Committee comprises key officials from the Department of Justice, the Department of Finance, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland who have appropriate corporate expertise in this area.
In closing the Programme, the Government committed to an orderly winding down of the Programme and the management of the closure in a way that is fair to all.
The closure of the Programme will not affect existing projects or individuals already approved under the programme. Where investor applications for approved projects are on hand the IIP unit will endeavour to speed up the processing of those applications in an orderly manner.
It is ultimately a matter for the project owner / sponsor to ensure delivery on an approved project within the timeframe set out in its business plan. The Department will however continue to monitor all projects going forward for delivery and compliance with IIP requirements, including use of the investment funding solely for delivery of the core capital project and not, for instance, for operational costs or investor agent fees. In the event that any serious issues of concern come to the attention of the Department in relation to the delivery of a project it will take whatever appropriate action is necessary, and this may include reporting the matter to the relevant authorities, pausing the processing of further investor applications associated with the project or withdrawing the approval given for the project.
Where a project is approved all individual investor applications associated with that project will be examined and approved in due course subject to meeting the IIP criteria as published and immigration requirements.
When processing these applications the IIP Unit, where required, will engage with applicants or their agent in relation to any gaps or additional information required in relation to their application before a final decision is made.
There is no need for you to contact the IIP unit in relation to your application, they will contact you or your agent if it is required.
A small number of approved projects submitted requests for additional funding for their project, prior to closing of the programme, to offset rising inflation / constructions costs with no changes being made to the business plan.
These applications for additional funding, subject to continuing to meet the IIP criteria, will be allowed to proceed to the Evaluation Committee for consideration and will be determined, based on the criteria previously agreed for dealing with such requests.
This process will only be allowed for approved projects which submitted a request for additional funding prior to the closing date of the programme. No other such requests from projects for additional funding will be brought to the Evaluation Committee.
Any project, not already approved by the closing date of the programme, which, in the future, requires additional funding to offset inflation / rising construction costs etc. will need to source other means of investment outside of that provided by the IIP.
The closure of the Programme will not affect existing projects or individuals already approved under the programme. Projects may proceed based on the Business Plan as previously approved by the Minister.
Any approved project requesting additional funding for new elements to a project, which are outside of the previously approved business plan, will be refused.
Any such requests would require a complete re-evaluation of all matters relating to the previously approved project and would be considered as a brand new application. Therefore, and especially since the Programme is now closed, and to be fair to all other projects and applicants, requests of this nature will not be considered for examination and will be refused.
Any project application that is without an investor is therefore invalid and will be refused on that basis.
While, subject to certain conditions being met, investors are allowed to transfer between projects, they are only allowed to do so if the other project already has an investor attached to it. Any attempt to transfer an investor to another project that does not already have an investor associated with it will not be allowed and will be refused.
The IIP Unit will engage with the project owner/proposers of these projects to agree a timeframe for planning to be obtained.
Where the funds are not invested no Immigration permission will be granted.
Where there are no investors willing to invest in a project at the time of decision on the application that application would not meet the IIP criteria as set out and therefore the application will be refused. It may be open to you to seek transfer of an investor who has been previously approved and whose project is now not proceeding.
While, subject to certain conditions being met, investors are allowed to transfer between projects, they are only allowed to do so if the other project already has an investor attached to it. Any attempt to transfer an investor to another project that does not already have an investor associated with it will not be allowed and will be refused.
In the event that a project application is refused the investors attached to that project will be allowed a period of four weeks to transfer to an already approved IIP project, if they wish to do so. Otherwise they may withdraw their application or it will be deemed withdrawn after the four week period has expired.