Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

I think what I was commenting on was in regard to the finance accounts which are very particular. They are designed to give an account to the Committee of Public Accounts and to Parliament of the flows in and out of the Central Fund. What I was trying to do was to point out that it is not like a normal set of financial statements for an enterprise, where there would be income and expenditure, and a balance sheet. There is scope for improvement in the presentation of the finance accounts to make them more accessible. It is something that we have been discussing with the Department. There is a broader project here. The IMF, about three years ago, had a look at how the accounting and budgeting works for the central Government sector. It made recommendations that there is a need for a fundamental reform and work is ongoing. There is a working group looking at that, to present better information in probably a more accessible format reflecting the economic reality of what is going on.