The Register of Public Sector Bodies in Ireland 2023 - Provisional, provides the basis for the preparation of Government Finance Statistics (GFS) and Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) reporting for Ireland. The Register lists all the organisations in the State which are classified as “general government” bodies for the purposes of national and government accounts. It also lists organisations which, while under public control, are not part of the general government sector. The distinction between the general government and public sectors is explained in the next chapter.
The Register has been updated since it was last published in October 2023 using results from the survey of central government departments, updates to local government and other statistical classification reviews. See the Background Notes for further information including an outline of the methodology for statistical classification decisions.
Previous publications of the Register can be seen on the CSO Website.
The public sector in Ireland is composed of general government and all corporations (financial or non-financial) which are under public control.
The general government sector (S.13) in Ireland is made up of central government (S.1311), local government (S.1313) and social security funds (S.1314). It is the set of all bodies which:
1. are directly or indirectly controlled by a government department or office, or by a local authority; and which either,
2. lack autonomy of decision and the power to own assets/liabilities, and/or do not produce a full set of accounts (the ‘institutional unit’ test);
3. are non-market producers (the ‘market/non-market’ test).
Figure 1.1 below illustrates the breakdown of the public sector comprising 878 public sector bodies.
Corporations in the non-financial (S.11) or financial (S.12) sectors are defined as public when controlled by government, otherwise they are private. Private corporations cover at least 50% of their operational costs from their own sources of income and are hence classified outside the general government sector. These corporations (307) are included in Figure 1.1 under Commercial Non-Financial Corporations and Commercial Financial Corporations.
A complete list of the Register is available on the Register of Public Sector Bodies 2023 - Provisional Table 1.1 (XLS 65KB) .
A CSV file is also available on the Register of Public Sector Bodies 2023 - Provisional Table 1.1 csv file.
The next chapters outline General Government, Central Government, Local Government, Public Corporations and Social Security Funds.
The Background Notes outline the criteria and the statistical classification decision making process.
Figure 1.1 Breakdown of Public Sector
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