The term "Accounting Officer" in Government accounting terms is specific to the officer responsible to the Oireachtas for having the account of expenditure and receipts of "voted expenditure" prepared and presented for audit. The Accounting Officer, usually the Secretary General or Head of the Department or office in question, may then be called to appear before the Public Accounts Committee of the Dáil to give evidence about the Account and in relation to any other account that the Department or Office is required to prepare.
The capital injections provided to Anglo Irish Bank do not fall to be accounted for in the Appropriation Accounts and as such there is no Accounting Officer, similar to other commercial Semi State bodies. The responsibility, in a commercial bank, for preparing accounts for audit, complying with the requirements of Company Law, financial regulation etc. and accounting for the operation of the bank generally, rests with the Board of the Bank.