Nine-in-10 government departments pay suppliers on time

More than nine out of 10 Irish government departments pay their suppliers within 15 days, according to small business minister, John Perry.
 
Mr Perry confirmed almost 60,000 payments were made in the final quarter of 2013, amounting to around €1.13bn. It was revealed that 52,362 of the payments – valued at around €1.08bn – were paid within less than a fortnight of being billed.
 
Ireland’s small business department has been running a campaign aimed at providing information on the late payment directive, which came into effect last March, and is designed to improve practices in commercial transactions between businesses and public authorities.
 
"In value terms, this represents 96 per cent of the total payments made by government departments, which clearly demonstrates that departments are continuing their efforts to comply with the government requirement to pay business suppliers within 15 days of receipt of a valid invoice," said Perry.
 
The results demonstrate a growing economic confidence within the Irish government, but there was plenty of work left to do to address the late payment culture across the continent.
 
"It is clear that Irish business, particularly small businesses, continue to face many challenges, one of these being the issue of late payments," added Perry.
 
"However, I am confident that through the measures which have recently been introduced, we can address the culture of late payments at both national and EU level."
 
The latest set of quarterly composite figures was also recently released by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.
 
Mr Perry confirmed that agencies who work under the auspices of his own department made 21,939 payments, amounting to €50.7m in the last three months.

Date published 10 Feb 2014 | Last updated 10 Feb 2014