Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 December 2013
121. Deputy Olivia Mitchell asked the Minister for Finance the reason neither GNP nor GDP is used as a key denominator to measure State costs in order to receive more accurate readings on public spending key performance indicators; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52924/13]
View answerDetails of voted expenditure, including its presentation, are primarily a matter for my colleague, Brendan Howlin T.D., Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform. However, you may be aware that the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform publishes detailed information on the annual amount of Exchequer Expenditure in a number of documents, including on Budget Day and in the Revised Estimates for Public Expenditure. In the Budgetary and Economic Statistics, an annual publication which is available at www.finance.gov.ie, my Department provide a time series of Total Government Expenditure relative to GNP as well as other key fiscal information relative to both GNP and GDP. The 2013 update is due to be completed and published next week.
Our obligations as a member of the Eurozone, means that key fiscal information, including our fiscal targets, have to be measured relative to GDP. GDP is the metric that is used for international comparisons. It may also be useful to note that the Eurostat website provides time series estimates of general government expenditure as a percentage of GDP for all Member States. Accordingly, the fiscal forecasts and outturns prepared by my Department twice-yearly as part of the Stability Programme Update and the budgetary process show the main components of general government receipts and expenditures as a percentage of GDP. Other tables in the annex of these publications show key aggregates in percentage of GDP terms.
