Accounting error discovery leaves state about 3.5 billion better off than thought

mike65

News just breaking.

D1stant

Ah thats great. Now we can pay those nice unsecured bond holders. Phew

Absurdum

that's a rather familiar figure.....

Velvety

Link?

CardinalJ

Absurdum wrote: »

that's a rather familiar figure.....

Exacty what I thought. Error is a result of double counting, they hardly double counted the amount they wanted to cut did they?!?

ei.sdraob

any bets no one will loose their job for making an "accounting error"...

maybe next time Revenue send me a bill ill use an "accounting error" excuse

Absurdum

Velvety wrote: »

Link?

reported on newstalk lunchtime show in the last few minutes...

RichardAnd

Before the competition of facetious quips kicks of in earnest, I would ask the question of what the implications of this might be, if indeed it is true. My immediate belief would be that it won't make a shred of difference but I must ask none the less.

ROFLcopter

RichardAnd wrote: »

Before the competition of facetious quips kicks of in earnest, I would ask the question of what the implications of this might be, if indeed it is true. My immediate belief would be that it won't make a shred of difference but I must ask none the less.

Does this mean we don't need to cut 3.5 billion in the budget?

Of course it doesn't

Cavehill Red

Perfectly timed to excuse paying off the bank bondholders, even as Greece, Italy, Portugal and everyone else are cutting partial default deals.

"Arra, sure, look. We've found this 3.5 billion down the back of the sofa in Bertie's oul office, only getting in cleaned out now, doncha know. That means we're up 2.8 after we sort out the European lads. Aren't things just grate altogither?"

My prediction: No one loses their job, no one is held accountable, the banks get paid off, the Irish taxpayer is no better off. Cuts will still be stringent in the budget.

RichardAnd

ROFLcopter wrote: »

Does this mean we don't need to cut 3.5 billion in the budget?

Of course it doesn't

My thoughts exactly.

kippy

I dont think the issue was down to "double counting" more so to do with incorrect categorisation.
Perhaps some money that was going down the swanny into the banks, had been put down under soverign debt when in fact it shouldnt have been categorised as so.

To me, this is just a moving deckchairs error. While the soverign side might be slightly better, the banks side is slightly worse.

We'll see how it pans out as the dept release a statement.

EDIT - it wont make much different to the budget

SBWife

RichardAnd wrote: »

Before the competition of facetious quips kicks of in earnest, I would ask the question of what the implications of this might be, if indeed it is true. My immediate belief would be that it won't make a shred of difference but I must ask none the less.

It depends. If it is that the overall debt is €3.5b less than previously estimated it really won't impact anything, but if it were that the annual deficit was being overestimated by that amount it would give government allot more room for manoeuvre on the upcoming budget.

Blowfish

Velvety wrote: »

Link?

Here.

drunkmonkey

Zaarito is running at 8/1 at Exeter today, I think we should try and double up, worst case scenario we'll be back to where we were this morning.

eeloe

German Government also find 55 billion due to accountancy error...

http://news.yahoo.com/germany-finds-55-billion-euro-accountancy-error-115520340.html

Jaysoose

Oh for ****ks sake how do the guys doing sterling work in the department of finance manage to miscount to the tune of over 2% of GDP!!


I have been saying it for a while i honestly think the dept of finance simply cant count.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

if governments are making errors in the billions , id be asking the question

' what the fcuk is really going on '

cos this smells like a scam to me .

darkman2

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

It's 2% of GDP. Germany also found 2% of GDP curiously enough.

ki

Is it 3.5 Billion once off or is it a annual 3.5Billion

Aka Ishur

DaDumTish wrote: »

if governments are making errors in the billions , id be asking the question

' what the fcuk is really going on '

cos this smells like a scam to me .

Leinster House Spokesman: Apparently there was this Nigerian Prince....

kippy

Yep and I wonder is this because of some categorization model that has come in for different types of debt....

jimmycrackcorm

Someone should ask Sean Gallagher to explain this accounting error.

Surveyor11

I found €2 down the back of the sofa this morning and was delighted, can only imagine how they feel.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Someone should ask Sean Gallagher to explain this accounting error.

may as well ask your penis ... oh wait

TheBody

Could happen to any of us folks. I found €2 billion down the back of the couch at the weekend!!

DrumSteve

This money wasn't found under someones mattress in drumcondra was it?

smcgiff

As this is a once off they'll still need to introduce a tough budget, but hopefully reduce the cuts by a few hundred million.

Or, if allowed by our European Masters, put it into a job creation programme.

Tazz T

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Zaarito is running at 8/1 at Exeter today, I think we should try and double up, worst case scenario we'll be back to where we were this morning.

Yeah, but like the government he has a problem getting over the obstacles, he's fallen in 3 of his last six races.

RichardAnd

smcgiff wrote: »

As this is a once off they'll still need to introduce a tough budget, but hopefully reduce the cuts by a few hundred million.

Or, if allowed by our European Masters, put it into a job creation programme.

More unpaid internships on the way so?

godtabh

If there are make such a mistake with big money what kind of mistakes are they making with little money?

Atilathehun

€3.6 billion, eh:o Isn't that the magic number, by which the government expects to have to bring in, in austerity measures in the next budget.

So, does it mean, we can have a happy, clappy, neutral budget, and we all heave a sigh of relief. We then go out and shop like deranged lunatics. Resulting in much better VAT and excise income for baldy Noonan, in January. Hey presto, he comes on TV3, and announces "we have turned the corner":D Bang, we all go shopping again, and the housing market, starts to turn. NAMA. starts to offload bricks and mortar, and move into profit.
The Germans, will be sore, from clapping our dear leader on the back as an example to those lazy, bstrads in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, etc.

Meanwhile Trappatoni, qualifies for the Euro finals, and we get a big tourism boost from the "Happy Paddy", syndrome at the finals:D

Biggest ididot in the whole country, will turn out to be David McWilliams:o

ianuss

Is it a case of it just being a double entry error? Meaning, a fairly common occurrence, albeit a fairly large one .

hatrickpatrick

Atilathehun wrote: »

€3.6 billion, eh:o Isn't that the magic number, by which the government expects to have to bring in, in austerity measures in the next budget.

So, does it mean, we can have a happy, clappy, neutral budget, and we all heave a sigh of relief. We then go out and shop like deranged lunatics. Resulting in much better VAT and excise income for baldy Noonan, in January. Hey presto, he comes on TV3, and announces "we have turned the corner":D Bang, we all go shopping again, and the housing market, starts to turn. NAMA. starts to offload bricks and mortar, and move into profit.
The Germans, will be sore, from clapping our dear leader on the back as an example to those lazy, bstrads in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, etc.

Meanwhile Trappatoni, qualifies for the Euro finals, and we get a big tourism boost from the "Happy Paddy", syndrome at the finals:D

Biggest ididot in the whole country, will turn out to be David McWilliams:o

Now here's someone with an ideology I would have gladly given my presidential vote to.

smcgiff

ianuss wrote: »

Is it a case of it just being a double entry error? Meaning, a fairly common occurrence, albeit a fairly large one .

From what I understand - two separate state companies accounted for this debt simultaneously. Hopefully they'll find another €50b or so :cool:

MikeCork2009

http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/ireland/report-govt-debt-36bn-less-after-accounting-error-526658.html

Hmm...so do we now need the "tough" budget in December!! :rolleyes:

ianuss

smcgiff wrote: »

From what I understand - two separate state companies accounted for this debt simultaneously. Hopefully they'll find another €50b or so :cool:

Bizarre. How the hell did they make that sort of error? I'm also guessing that accounts would have to be signed off at various management levels too - it's not like you can really blame the intern.

antoobrien

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Zaarito is running at 8/1 at Exeter today, I think we should try and double up, worst case scenario we'll be back to where we were this morning.

hope you put it on medremit instead (7/2)

antoobrien

It means two things:
We have less interest to pay than we thought we had
We're using the same software as the Germans (not exactly a shock)

donegal11

Amazing that they "find" the 3.5billion error the same time as they are paying the billion to Anglo bondholders. Would the government be trying to deflect some of the negative press coming there way.

Sudsy86

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Now here's someone with an ideology I would have gladly given my presidential vote to.

I second this!

remember folks, this is why the top civil servants in the NTMA, Dept. Of Finance etc are paid the big bucks... bunch of donkeys

noodler

MikeCork2009 wrote: »

http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/ireland/report-govt-debt-36bn-less-after-accounting-error-526658.html

Hmm...so do we now need the "tough" budget in December!! :rolleyes:

Of course - common misconception, you are confusing the Government Deficit with the Government debt.

1)

Lets say you have owe your mate 103.6bn euros.

Also lets say you spend 10m a month and earn 10m a month.

2)

Now lets say you get a pay cut of 3.6m euros. I think it is plain for all to see that your spending will also have to fall by the same amount.

If your friend, Larry let's call him, said you only had to pay him back 100bn, it would hardly change the fact you need to make sure your expendture is not higher than your revenue.

Itsdacraic

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Zaarito is running at 8/1 at Exeter today, I think we should try and double up, worst case scenario we'll be back to where we were this morning.

If you only expect to be paid double your bet for backing 8/1 shots, I'll take your money all day

(and especially if you wanted to back Zaarito in that race)

eire4

Wow that is quite the error. I guess at least for once it wasn't screwed up the other way with Ireland owing more. I would think it would be a smart move to use this as some extra space in the budget to try and create some jobs and give some leeway to encourage people to spend.

drunkmonkey

antoobrien wrote: »

hope you put it on medremit instead (7/2)

Luckily I got distracted before I got to paddy power:D

Sticky_Fingers

Itsdacraic wrote: »

If you only expect to be paid double your bet for backing 8/1 shots, I'll take your money all day

(and especially if you wanted to back Zaarito in that race)

Well we could go on betfair, back him for 4 billion at 8/1, then wait for price to come in and then lay him at a much shorter price. Then you green up the book and are guaranteed a relatively small profit. Of course thats assuming that there are other idiots out their willing to bet billions on horse races, those clowns are over in the stock market :P

RichardAnd

eire4 wrote: »

Wow that is quite the error. I guess at least for once it wasn't screwed up the other way with Ireland owing more. I would think it would be a smart move to use this as some extra space in the budget to try and create some jobs and give some leeway to encourage people to spend.

I'd love to see that too but as Permabear pointed out earlier, the 3.5 billion euro is not money in our pocket but rather, a small slide off a very large loaf. We're not 3.5 billion euros closer to a stable budget, we just owe slightly less than we thought we did.

Hayte

Its the new economic stimulus strategy. Even if the correction turns out to be another accounting error its still like "Whoa we are not as indebted as we thought! Come my fellow Irishmen! To the iTunes Store!"

Dirk Gently

eire4 wrote: »

I would think it would be a smart move to use this as some extra space in the budget to try and create some jobs and give some leeway to encourage people to spend.

unfortunately no-one has found 3.5 billion spare cash which we can now spend. It's just 3.5 billion less in imaginary money to be paid out which we dont have in the first place. It will save some money in interest repayments though as it's 3.5 bill less we need to borrow from peter to pay emmm, peter with interest.