PAC to focus on Department of Finance Accounts

The schedule for tomorrow’s meeting is:

C&AG Report 2016

Chapter 1: Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2016
Chapter 2: Government Debt
Chapter 5: Fiscal Transparency
Chapter 24: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
Vote 7: Department of Finance Appropriation Account 2016
Finance Accounts 2016

Officials from Department of Finance will attend the meeting.      

Committee Chairman Sean Fleming TD said: “Officials from the Department of Finance will attend the Public Accounts Committee for our hearings on the Department’s accounts for 2016. Among the issues we may raise is the European Commission decision on state aid. The Committee addressed this issue during its recent examination of Corporation Tax receipts and would be interested in getting an update on progress in regard to the putting in place of arrangements for the escrow fund and the calculation of the amount of State aid. Other matters of interest are Government funding to Irish Water – the Government has provided €2.5 billion to Irish Water in the period 2013 to 2016, by way of grants, contributions and loans through different funding mechanisms; loans to the Housing Finance Agency which have decreased each year in the period 2012 to 2016; and Ireland’s contribution to the EU budget.

In relation to the chapter on Government debt, Ireland has a relatively high debt burden and the Committee will be interested in discussing the impact on debt servicing costs of debt refinancing due to take place between 2017 and 2020. The European Statistics Office Eurostat had stated that the substantial upward revision to GDP for 2015 reflects the activities of a small number of large multinational firms and this is primarily due to the relocation to Ireland of a limited number of big economic operators. We will be keen to examine Eurostat’s observation and why the activities of a number of multinationals impacted on GDP.

In relation to fiscal transparency, the Committee will be looking for an update on progress in implementing 35 recommended actions contained in a 2013 IMF report which evaluated Ireland’s fiscal management and reporting against the IMF’s Fiscal Transparency Code.”
 
This PAC meeting will start in Committee Room 3 at 9am on Thursday, 19 April 2018.

Committee proceedings can be viewed live here.

Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the move, through the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.