John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 146: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the amount of interest paid to suppliers by her Department under the prompt payment system in each of the past five years; the persons who were the top three beneficiaries in each year; and the amount they received. [22454/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Where a payment to a supplier is not made promptly when due, the interest paid to the supplier effectively ensures that no significant financial advantage or disadvantage accrues to the Exchequer or the supplier respectively. Since no significant net financial benefit arises in practice for either party there are no beneficiaries as such.

The following table details the amount of interest paid by the Department to suppliers under the prompt payment system for each of the last five years, and the top three payments in each year. The names of these suppliers are not disclosed so as to avoid the possibility of commercially sensitive inferences being drawn in some instances.

While the amount paid in prompt payment interest increased in 2007 over 2006, the interest as a percentage of all payments issued to suppliers has reduced from 0.2% of all payments in 2006 to 0.15% of all payments in 2007.