Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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146. To ask the Minister for Finance the steps his Department will take in preparing new measures for economic growth that reflect conomic activity, while stripping out aircraft leasing, inversions and other activities which distort the picture of our economic growth, in light of last week's growth figures, which were discredited both nationally and internationally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23973/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The National Income and Expenditure accounts figures for 2015 published by the CSO last week are the definitive measure of Irish national output. On the basis of these figures, however, it is not possible to isolate an underlying measure which directly strips out the factors cited by the Deputy.

As I have previously stated, these various factors are clearly exaggerating headline GDP figures in an Irish context and are not reflective of activity levels seen on the ground here. More concrete indicators of the underlying levels of economic activity (specifically consumer spending, tax trends and labour market developments) all, however, confirm that Ireland's economic fundamentals remain strong.

It is important to state that gross measures of output recorded by the CSO (i.e. GDP and GNP) record what they are designed to record. It should be emphasised that all figures published by the CSO are compiled in accordance with best international practice and statistical standards. However, in a small open and very globalised economy such as Ireland's, it is clear that the relevance of these gross figures as a means of tracking underlying economic trends and changes in actual living standards is more limited than is the case elsewhere.

In acknowledgement of this, the Central Statistics Office has established an expert group to provide guidance on how a more relevant indicator could be produced and published alongside these gross measures of output in the future.  The Chief Economist of my Department will sit on this group, with the group expected to report later this year.