Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 257: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the average time for payment to be made by his Department and by each agency affiliated to his Department to outside contractors for goods and services employed for each of the years 2004 to 2007 and to date in 2008 in tabular readable form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17379/08]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Payment of invoices by this Department is governed by the provisions of the Prompt Payment of Accounts Act, 1997 as amended by the European Communities (Late Payment in Commercial Transactions) Regulations 2002. The Act, which came into force in January 1998, provided for the payment of interest on invoices which are unpaid after 45 days from date of receipt. In August 2002, the point at which interest becomes due was reduced to 30 days.

While there are no figures available to establish the average time for payments on an annual basis, the payment procedures of my Department are designed to avoid undue delay in the processing and payment of valid invoices. Every effort is made to make payments within the 30 day period.

The following table gives particulars of the number of late payments made in the years 2004 to 2007 and to date in 2008, in both Vote 28 (Foreign Affairs) and Vote 29 (International Aid).

The number of late payments in each year represents a very small part of the total number of payments made. For example, in 2007, my Department made over 15,000 payments in Ireland, of which only 33 were late payments under the terms of the Acts mentioned above.