Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The accounts of the central fund of the Exchequer are called the finance accounts. They are produced by the Department of Finance. My personal view, and this is something I have recommended, is that the finance accounts could be expanded and improved but it is a matter for Committee of Public Accounts to engage with the Department of Finance on that. The format of accounts generally in the pubic sector is a matter for the line Minister and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. I cannot decide that the structure and the level of disclosures in a set of financial statements should be different. I have to work within the framework that is set by the relevant Ministers. It is within the competency and the remit of the committee to look at the financial statements and to form a view, if the members are so minded, that those financial statements do not cover all of the information they think is appropriate to be in the public domain. Were they look at the finance accounts the next time they appear before the committee, if they were to step back from them and consider them in terms of the level of information they give, they could ask if that the kind of information that needs to be in the public domain and what would they, as members of the committee, wish to recommend be changed. They would then get a response from the relevant Minister.

Just to give an example, the finance accounts are a cash account and do not have a balance sheet so the liabilities and the assets of the State are not presented in the account of the Central Fund of the Exchequer. The committee may decide it would like to see that and there would be a job of work involved in compiling it. Back in 2012 or 2013, the IMF came in and had a look at the form of accounting and the structures for accounting and made recommendations about the necessity for a whole-of-government account and, if one likes, a more comprehensive view than the finance accounts give. A project has commenced on that and I reported on it when it was starting out. I envisage a further report giving a progress report on that project, which will come to the committee, probably not this year but perhaps next year. It is a line of questioning and Deputies do not have to wait for a report. Given that the project is under way, they could engage with the Secretary General of the Department of Finance on that when he appears.