PAC to examine Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure & Reform Accounts

The agenda for the meeting is:

a) 9.00 a.m. 2015 Appropriation Accounts - Vote 7: Office of the Minister for Finance
C&AG Report 2015 -
Chapter 1: Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2015
Chapter 2: Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2015

(b) 2.30 p.m.  2015 Appropriation Accounts -
 Vote 11: Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform
Vote 12: Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 18: Shared Services
Vote 39: Office of Government Procurement
C&AG Report 2015 -
Chapter 3: Vote Accounting and Budget Management
C&AG Special Report 95: Financial Reporting in the Public Sector

Committee Chairman Seán Fleming said: “The most comprehensive measure of government debt is general government debt (GGDebt), an internationally standardised measure of debt which all EU countries are legally obliged to use.  Ireland's GGDebt at the end of 2015 is estimated at approximately €201 billion – a decrease of 1% on 2014. GGDebt peaked at €203 billion in 2013 and marginally declined in 2013 and 2014.

The sharp decline in GGDebt as a proportion of GDP from a peak of 120% in 2012 and 2013 to 79% in 2015 indicates an exceptional increase in Ireland’s GDP in 2015. The European Statistics Office (Eurostat) stated that the substantial upward revision to GDP for 2015 reflects the activities of a small number of large multinational firms and this is primarily due to the relocation to Ireland of a limited number of big economic operators.

The Eurostat observation on the reasons for the surge in GDP in 2015 will be one of the key issues we will discuss tomorrow and we will be keen to get the Department of Finance perspective on it. We will want to ascertain who are these large multinational firms, how do their activities have such an impact on GDP and given that large multinationals locating to Ireland is not a new phenomenon, we will want to know why the impact was so pronounced in 2015. We will also want to know if the downward trend in the GGDebt ratio continued in 2016.

The CSO is to form a group of experts to provide guidance on how a broader or more detailed suite of indicators could be produced and published alongside this data in the future and we will want an update on this.”

This meeting will start in Committee room 3 at 9am on Thursday, 6 July 2017.

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