Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Public Accounts Committee
Business of Committee
10:10 am
Mr. Seamus McCarthy:
No. If one looks at the legislation around annual financial statements and annual reports, in general a distinction is made between the preparation and the presentation of the two. There is a provision for them not to move in locked step. Sometimes one will see in the certificates that we issue a reference to where an annual report is being published together with the financial statements. We have an obligation to consider the content of the annual report to establish that there is no inconsistency between what is in the report and what is in the financial statements. Most organisations will publish their financial statements separately from their annual report which generally focuses on performance and what the organisation is doing rather than on the financials.