Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

What is important is that there is consistency, that is, that one declares what one's accounting policy is, and that is applied and stuck to. There is an opportunity for a body to value or to re-value in generally accepted accounting practice, but again, it needs to be done on a systematic basis. What the committee was looking at last week was an appropriation account, and the accounting policies on appropriation accounts are different. It is cash accounting. What accounting policy is to be applied is a matter for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. If a Department deviates from the standard policy, which is based on the historic cost, then that must be disclosed, so that any user of the accounts is aware that that is what is being done.