Senior Finance official 'became aware of €3.6bn error last Friday'

The most senior official in the Department of Finance has told the Public Accounts Committee that he only became aware of a €3.6bn blunder in calculating the debt in our national accounts last Friday evening.

Department of Finance secretary general Kevin Cardiff is giving evidence to the Public Accounts Committee over how the debt was "double-counted".

The potential for the accounting mistake was raised by the National Treasury Management Agency 15 months ago, and several times since.

Mr Cardiff said an internal and external investigation would be carried out, but that he believed the error was missed on several fronts. The figures are supposed to be checked by the Department of Finance, the CSO and the NTMA.

"There was a contagion of the error from one organisation to the other, instead of the issues being separately checked in each one," he said.