Vol. 510 No. 4
1 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach if the Government has made a policy decision to adopt the ESA95 exhaustive measure of GDP or GNP as standards; the efforts, if any, to ensure this latest measure is used in each Government Department and agency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21716/99]
All EU member states are required under EU Regulation 2223/96 to compile national accounts estimates in accord ance with ESA95 standards. The latest estimates for 1990-98 issued by the CSO in June of this year in the National Income and Expenditure, 1998 publication, conform to the ESA95 standards. These also incorporated significant upward revisions to the levels previously published to take account of the so-called "exhaustiveness issues". This was required of all member states under the terms of Commission decision 94/168/EC. These are the only figures published by the CSO relating to GNP and GDP this year. All future estimates will be published on this ESA95 basis.
The CSO issued an information notice on 17 June 1998 alerting its principal users to the forthcoming changeover to the ESA95 as the basis for the national accounts. Users were also invited to a seminar in Dublin Castle earlier this year to explain this development, and the relevant statistical release and publication, issued in June and July respectively, included details of the changeover.
