Written answers
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Department of Finance
Departmental Expenditure
5:00 pm
Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 94: To ask the Minister for Finance 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. [17378/08]
Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The information requested by the Deputy with the exception of the Office of Public Works is contained in the following Tables.
| Average time for payment to be made to outside contractors for goods and services | |||||
| Department / office | Average time for payment in 2004 | Average time for payment in 2005 | Average time for payment in 2006 | Average time for payment in 2007 | Average time for payment in Year to date 2008 |
| (days) | |||||
| Department of Finance | 28 | 28 | 31 | 23 | 14 |
| Office of the Revenue Commissioners | 23 | 22 | 23 | 18 | 18 |
| Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland | 22* | 26 | 19 | 20 | 19 |
| Public Appointments Service | 22 | 24 | 21 | 29 | 39 |
| Commission for Public Service Appointments | 20 | 9 | 7 | 12 | 15 |
| Valuation Office | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| National Treasury Management Agency | 22 | 17 | 16 | 19 | 17 |
| State Claims Agency | 23 | 23 | 17 | 17 | 17 |
| Office of the Comptroller & Auditor General's Office | 11 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 10 |
| Office of the Ombudsman | 40 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 10 |
| State Laboratory | 36 | 47 | 45 | 26 | 22 |
| *New system employed in 2004 records relate to April 2004–December 2004. |
As the Office of Public Works process over of 40,000 payments annually it would not be practicable to research the payment details of each payment. The Office of Public has informed me that their accounting system captures all payments in excess of €5 which attract interest payments under the Prompt Payments of Accounts Act 1997. Interest is payable under the Act where an invoice is not paid within thirty days of receipt (or a shorter period specified in a contract).
The following table sets out the number of late payments by the Office and the percentage of the total which accrued interest payments for the period January 2004 to 30 April 2008.
| Year | Total Number of Payments | Number of Late Payments | % |
| 2004 | 42,341 | 1,062 | 2.5 |
| 2005 | 46,071 | 791 | 1.7 |
| 2006 | 46,817 | 900 | 1.9 |
| 2007 | 51,025 | 1,023 | 2.0 |
| 2008 (to 30 April) | 15,960 | 435 | 2.7 |
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