Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 19 April 2018

Public Accounts Committee

2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 5 - Fiscal Transparency

9:00 am

Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The International Monetary Fund has developed a set of standards for systems used by governments to ensure fiscal transparency. Their underlying objectives are that fiscal reports should provide a comprehensive, timely, reliable, comparable and accessible summary of a government’s financial performance and position. In 2013 a team from the IMF visited Ireland, at the request of the Secretaries General of the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, to review and assess Ireland's fiscal system against the standards. The report concluded that Ireland's fiscal reporting was relatively comprehensive, frequent and reliable but quite fragmented. The team made 35 recommendations for change, with a view to full implementation by 2017. The Government referred the report and action plan to a steering group for implementation, as appropriate. I carried out a review last year to assess progress in that regard.

As outlined in the chapter, the recommendations can usefully be grouped together under three broad headings. They relate to the budget process, in respect of which there were 13 recommendations; the need to recognise and value a wider range of State assets and liabilities in fiscal budgeting and reporting, in respect of which there were nine recommendations; and financial reporting, in respect of which there were 13 recommendations. The chapter includes an annex listing the recommended actions individually and outlining the status vis-à-viseach one as at mid-2017. Figure 5.1 in the chapter which can be shown on screen for Deputies summarises the position. It indicates that most progress has been made in implementing the recommendations related to the budgetary process. Progress was more mixed in recognising a wider range of assets and liabilities, while least progress was made in implementing recommendations related to financial reporting.