Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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2. To ask the Taoiseach if he will provide a list of commercial State and semi-State organisations whose borrowings are on the State's balance sheet; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35180/15]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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The CSO is responsible for the official reporting of Ireland’s General Government Deficit/Balance, Government Debt, and other Government Finance Statistics. This requires the CSO to define the scope of the public sector (which includes the General Government Sector) in Ireland. This classification process is governed by legally binding accounting rules which must be used by all EU countries. The public sector includes all bodies which are directly or indirectly controlled by government. The general government sector comprises public sector bodies which are classified as 'non-market', i.e. not operating on a commercial basis. The borrowings of this latter group are included in general government debt as reported under the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP).

The CSO maintain and publish the Register of Public Sector Bodies (including General Government Bodies) in Ireland. The current version of the register (reference year 2014) is available at. The composition of this register is not static. Government controlled bodies are established, closed and merged over time. Also the market/non-market status of bodies must be continually reviewed. Consequently the Register of Public Sector Bodies is reviewed and up-dated periodically (at least annually). Recently the CSO and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform established and carried out a survey of central government departments to routinise the updating of the register. Preliminary results of this survey are reflected in the latest version of the register, which lists the non-market agencies which are classified to the general government sector, by Department. This information is available in Table 1.1.2 of the register which is also reproduced below. A separate table in the Register provides a listing of Departments of State, Additional Votes and Extra-budgetary funds.

While all of the bodies listed above can potentially contribute to government debt not all of them will necessarily have borrowings in a given year. The composition of general government debt and the contribution of different parts of government to debt in recent years are shown in Tables 7 and 9 of the CSO's annual Government Finance Statistics release which is available at

Table 1.1.2 from Register of Public Bodies (including General Government Bodies) in Ireland