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THE REPORT on the circumstances of how Ireland’s general government debt was overstated by €3.6 billion in figures for 2010 may be published next week.
The Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee has been told that both an internal investigation and an external report into the error, carried out by Deloitte Consultants, have now been completed.
The secretary-general of the Department of Finance, John Moran, has written to the committee telling it that once “a few minor amendments” are incorporated into the Deloitte report, it will be presented to Michael Noonan.
The letter, dated last Tuesday, indicates that once this has been done, the report will only need to be presented to the government before it can be published in full and delivered to the committee itself.
Moran said he expected Noonan would “present a Memorandum to Government very shortly”, and that the intention – subject to the findings of the reports – then was that both reports would be made available to the public “as soon as is practicable” after the government had received them.
While the cabinet will hold its usual meeting tomorrow, Noonan will not be present, as he is attending meetings of the Eurogroup and ECOFIN in Brussels today and tomorrow.
It is possible, therefore, that the reports could be approved by the Cabinet at its meeting next week and then published.
The CSO explained that the error, which came to light last November, had arisen when a €3.6 billion loan taken out by the Housing Finance Agency from the National Treasury Management Agency was treated as if it had been borrowed externally, as all previous HFA loans had been.
This meant that the HFA’s external debts, and therefore the debts of the government overall, were reported as being €3.6 billion higher than they actually were.
There was no benefit to the public purse, however, as the NTMA’s loan was incorrectly recorded as a bank deposit – thereby becoming a government ‘asset’ – rather than a mere transfer of cash from one State body to another.
The end result of the dual error meant that both the government’s assets and debts were recorded as being €3.6 billion higher than they should have been.
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Brilliant news, that total improvement of 126 Million Euro in income tax, caused by 50,000 people returning to paid employment, will just about cover the consultants bill for Irish Water!!!
Time to ditch the USC so.
So even though the article states that there’s still a deficit of €2.3 billion you think it’s a good idea to get rid of a tax, thus increasing the deficit more??
Yes I hate it.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the people discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the canidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy–to be followed by a dictatorship.”
― Alexander Fraser Tytler
Guys this is spin,EU elections on the way,everything is great in Ireland,pure bullshit,arrest all of these traiters
Great!
So we don’t need to privatise the water supply then?
No, we’ve just paid for the consultants. It means your water charges will be 0.000001 cent per litre less.
What a great bunch of stand up guys. Sure you couldn’t have done it without us. Hope the water charges come soon, can’t wait to swell the government coffers further. Give yourselves a clap on the back for a job well done.
Ah no dont use your own hand, take mine, sure I have two.
Nothing to do with the property tax Michael, no ?? If it’s making no difference then stop collecting it and give it back.
Well there is still the matter of the €2.3 billion deficit! Really the only way that this can be tackled is if they can somehow get more people off the live register and back making a contribution to the tax take.
The frightening thing at the moment is that if there’s a deficit of €2.3 billion then it is completely impossible for this to be covered. If you assume that every person on the live register found work tomorrow there would be a quarterly increase of about €900 million directly as a result of less expenditure on social welfare. This isn’t even half the deficit for the current quarter covered.
Yes but, add back the income tax UCS and PRSI from these newly employed.
If we did not pay for the bank bail-out, private debt made public or NAMA we would be running at a surplus.
The tax take from multi-nationals was down 35%, so clearly the ordinary worker and citizen is paying all the additional taxes, charges levies and others have had cuts in pay, benefits and allowances.
We would be a relatively rich nation if we had not made private debt public. Morgan Kelly estimated that 3 hard budgets would have balanced the books had we not been so generous to crooks. Not one of whom has served a day in prison! That is the cause of Ireland’s economic mess, and nothing else. We must demand Kenny stops paying out such money and that the our good friends at the ECB takes on the debt.
It’s still a deficit lads, come back to me when you stop taxing the hole off of me to pay increments in the public sector.
Most of that deficit is sadly national debt & interest payments.
The primary deficit is almost eliminated.
It’s about -3%, so it sounds like a good time to go out and spend to me.
Well done Noonan. Give that man a Bonus and a Pension Top Up.
Something has to yie in with their unemployment drivel from earlier
Liquidate your assets before you pop your clogs. Revenue are relentless when it comes to inheritance tax.
Death and taxes – what do you want first?
There doing a fantastic job !!
This means they can start giving back!!!
Give it back,even if we continue on course for the rest of the year we still have to borrow well over 9 € billion this year,and this is just to pay day to day expences and keep the country moving,we are still a long way off from ballancing the budget and paying our way.
Ah the lads are sound please noon an if u want to drop by my house and take my remaining disposable income I will give u that as well,all €20 of it
The €138 million drop in corporation tax is significant.
Pharmaceutical company revenue was down a lot in 2013 because of the patent cliff.
Is the deficit quoted including interest payments we are making on our debt?
The amount we are paying on interest payments every year is pretty shocking. Something like 3 billion. Feels like we have been dealing with loan sharks.
The word compliance in relation to the LPT reminds me of the answer given to Prince John by the Sheriff of Nottingham when asked how the peasants were responding to the latest tax imposed on them. “Once we threatened to burn their homes down they complied, particularly after we had made an example of those that refused, your Lordship”.
WEEEEEEEEEEED SELL it an Make millions More .!!!
I should hope so with all the new taxes! What a dumb press release
So how much are we having to borrow every month now? Still about a billion?
Less people working. Tax take up. Somebody is been screwed, wonder who?
Ah, come on guys. This is a good news story. They’re wouldn’t be an election just around the corner now, would there ?
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