Vol. 451 No. 6
21 Miss Harney asked the Minister for Finance if a recent Government report confirms that the country's GDP is overstated by the transfer pricing policies of transnational companies operating in Ireland and that the country's GDP is overstated by a lesser amount of 3 per cent according to the report; and the implications of these adjustments for the real level of trade dependence by Irish industrialists on the British market. [6386/95]
I understand the Deputy is referring to a report commissioned by the previous Government from an interdepartmental group chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach. The group's terms of reference required it to examine the external trade statistics and their impact on national income statistics; to consider technical issues arising from the basis of compilation of the statistics and the underlying economic trends, and to consider the implications for economic performance and policy and the analysis of statistical sources and procedures.
The report of the group is expected shortly. Pending the completion of the report and its consideration by Government, I cannot comment on its contents.
I assume that the Deputy, in the second part of her question, has in mind the possibility that export data might understate the dependence of Irish industrialists on the British market. Unless Irish industrialists were to sell their products to the UK at prices below their true value — an approach for which I can see no good reason — export data could not understate that dependence.
