Dr. Eoin Magennis:

The late payments issue is a vicious cycle for some SMEs whenever it comes along. One of the things we found in the research was that it was identified as an issue by many firms, and what they meant by late payments was over and above the terms of the payment date, be it 30 days, 60 days or whatever date they set. By vicious cycle, I mean that the one third of customers in Ireland - slightly less in Northern Ireland - were receiving late payments and about a fifth of that number were then increasing the length of time they were taking to pay their suppliers. The whole way along the supply chain led to a problem there. It seems to be a slightly bigger issue in the South than in the North. Perhaps that has something to do with payment culture in general, although I am not entirely sure about that. Perhaps it has something to do with the depth of the crisis that existed when we carried out the research in 2012.