Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 138: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he has considered introducing incentives to encourage people to move to cashless systems of payment and transactions which would bring considerable administrative savings as well as savings in security costs; and his estimate of the savings on administration costs within the public service that would be obtained when a person switches to receive payment electronically. [25677/07]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, there is a general move in favour of electronic payments from cash and paper-based payment methods. The Government has been proactive in supporting this change through its payroll and scheme payments policies. Indeed, methods to facilitate cashless payments by and to Government Departments and Offices have been well established for a number of years.

The Department of Social and Family Affairs offers electronic payments options in respect of most of its schemes. In fact, EFT now accounts for about 56% of all welfare payments, up from 34% in 2004, and growing by about 1% per month. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food makes payments to some 66,000 farmers (about 50% of the total) via EFT and this is likely to increase to about 90% under EU regulations. The revenue Online Service (ROS) allows self-employed individuals and small businesses to meet certain of their tax obligations online, and there has been extensive take-up of this option by taxpayers.

The Government's adoption of electronic payment methods reflects an assessment that such methods offer efficiency gains and also provide the State's customers with a convenient service. However, there is no reliable method of assessing the savings on administration costs that accrue from the switch to cashless payments available at this time.

On a wider front, the national Strategy for the Implementation of eProcurement in the Irish Public Sector, approved by government in 2002, recognised the necessity for enabling electronic marketplaces to facilitate electronic procurement of goods and services including electronic invoicing, processing and payment.

Implementation of financial management systems supporting electronic Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) functionality is essential to facilitate electronic invoicing and payments and such systems are being implemented across the public sector. A project is currently underway in my Department to assess the status of implementation and usage in all public sector bodies.

One of the EU's eGovernment targets anticipates 100% eProcurement capability by 2010 in all member states — this includes eSourcing (eTendering), eOrdering, eInvoicing and ePayment. Progress on this initiative is being monitored by the Department of the Taoiseach for regular reports to the European Commission.

Of course the bulk of day-to-day payments take place in the private sector. Most employers now pay their staff via EFT to their bank accounts. With EFT applying to salary and a considerable proportion of State payments, it is clear that the demand for cash is not so much on the 'income' side, but rather on the 'expenditure side. A very considerable proportion of point-of-sale transactions are made in cash. The Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO) Ltd. is the representative body for the payments industry. It is active in promoting the ePayment agenda, engaging with all public and private stakeholders.