New fiscal reporting by Department of Finance part of ‘drive to enhance transparency’

The Department of Finance has published its first breakdown of the monthly revenues and expenditures of the subsectors of general government, as part of its requirement to meet the European Commission's so-called "six-pack" rules on economic governance.

The report, which will be published each month, covers the central government, local government and social security fund subsectors.

The data uses a different concept of the general government balance than the traditional exchequer borrowing requirement provided in the department’s monthly exchequer statements.

Publication of the data is part of a “drive to enhance fiscal transparency”, said the department. Under the six-pack agreement – fiscal reporting and budgetary framework standards agreed in 2011 – EU member states were asked to provide further detail on the composition of revenue and expenditure on monthly basis, for domestic transparency reasons.