Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 September 2014
216. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance the impact that additional borrowings taken on by commercial semi-State bodies have on the general Government deficit and general Government debt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33397/14]
View answerGovernment bodies which are considered to be commercial under government accounting guidelines are not classified within the general government sector. Consequently, current or future borrowings made by these entities have no effect on the overall government deficit or debt.
However, there are some bodies which were set up under a commercial remit that are currently classified within the general government sector which include both RTÉ and Irish Rail. Under Eurostat guidelines these may be reclassified outside government should they operate as sustainable market entities (greater than 50% of revenue generated from commercial sources) for a period of three consecutive years.
A preliminary register of public sector bodies in Ireland is published on the Central Statistics Office (CSO) website (http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/surveysandmethodologies/documents/pdfdocs/regpublicsectorbodies.pdf ) with relevant background notes as regards definitions, classifications, and methodologies. Tables 2 and 3 of this register detail the public sector bodies classified outside of the general government sector (i.e. commercial semi state bodies).
