The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 40D:

"40DA. Requests by Article 3(2) authorities to FIU Ireland

(1) Subject to subsection (2), FIU Ireland shall cooperate with the Article 3(2) authorities and shall reply, in a timely manner, to reasoned and necessary requests by those authorities, made on a case-by- case basis, for financial information or financial analysis, where the requests are motivated by concerns relating to the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of serious criminal offences.

(2) FIU Ireland shall not be obliged to comply with requests referred to in subsection (1) -

(a) where, in the opinion of FIU Ireland, there are objective grounds for assuming that the provision of such information would have a negative impact on ongoing investigations or analyses, or

(b) in exceptional circumstances, where, in the opinion of FIU Ireland, disclosure of the information would be clearly disproportionate to the legitimate interests of a natural or legal person, or irrelevant with regard to the purposes for which it has been requested.

(3) The financial information or financial analysis obtained by an Article 3(2) authority as a result of a request referred to in subsection (1) may only be used for a purpose other than the purpose of the request where FIU Ireland has given its prior consent.