Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 6 July 2017

Public Accounts Committee

2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 18 - Shared Services
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Comptroller and Auditor General Special Report 95: Financial Reporting in the Public Sector

9:00 am

Mr. Robert Watt:

Yes. The only issue on capital spend relates to smoothing and there are ongoing debates between the Department of Finance and the European Commission about the application of the rules, because they are ambiguous. They refer to a structural balance but this is unobservable. There will always be a debate on potential growth and the convergence margin. The Department of Finance has set out the details but this will always be uncertain and subject to discussion. We do not know how fast the economy can grow in real or nominal terms and we do not know at any given time where we are in the economic cycle, whether we are close to potential output, whether there is an output gap or whether it is minus or plus. All these factors have an impact on the way we can grow spending.

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