Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 86: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will produce in conjunction with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform a simplified set of public accounts in terms of totals, percentages, and per capita for each taxpayer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10551/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Annual public spending, that is voted and non-voted spending, is set out in summary and aggregate form in the Finance Accounts. Likewise the Accounts show the revenues of the State, which are made up of taxes and non-tax income. Under Section 4 of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Amendment) Act, 1993, the Finance Accounts are compiled annually by my Department, audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General and laid before Dail Eireann before 30 September in the year following the year to which the accounts relate. The Act defines the Finance Accounts as an account showing the payments into and out of the Central Fund and such other, if any, accounts and statements as the Minister for Finance considers appropriate and specifies to the Comptroller and Auditor General. The format of the Accounts was revised substantially in the late 1980s and there have been minor changes in presentation in recent years. The Budgetary and Economic Statistics, published annually on my Department's website, contains data showing the percentage changes in public spending and revenue. They also show GDP and GNP on a per capita basis. I have no plans to include statements, or information, in the Finance Accounts expressing data in terms of population statistics, though it is open to users of the Accounts to apply such statistics in order to derive data on a per capita basis.