Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

General government debt is a quantum that is calculated under statistical rules rather than accounting rules. I do not audit the general government debt; I audit the national debt, which is the borrowing undertaken by National Treasury Management Agency. With respect to that borrowing, there is a set of financial statements which comes to the committee called the account of the national debt. It is also incorporated into the finance accounts. That is the limit of remit of the Committee of Public Accounts in regard to that. If the liabilities are accounted outside that, my understanding is that it would not fall to the committee.