The Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Act 2018, which was commenced last July, repealed and replaced seven previous Prevention of Corruption Acts dating back as far as 1889, and provided for a number of new offences as well as stronger penalties.

At the time, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan described the law as “a robust piece of legislation with sufficiently tough and effective penalties”.

However, the Department of Justice has accepted law falls short of the OECD’s standards because of its dual criminality requirement with regards to foreign bribery, The Irish Times reports.

An OECD working group will evaluate the Irish law in October and a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said: “Ireland will consider fully any recommendations that the working group makes from that evaluation.”