Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 318: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the amount of interest paid by him in respect of the late payments for goods or services contracted by his Department for the past five years to date in 2009; the steps being taken to ensure that money is appropriately spent and that payments are made on time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25864/09]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, 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.

The Government recently approved formal arrangements to reduce the payment period by central Government Departments to their suppliers from 30 to 15 days, in order to help ease cash flow difficulties for small business operating under current economic difficulties.

Every effort is being made by my Department to adhere to this deadline and make payments for goods and services within the limit. The payment procedures in operation in my Department are designed to avoid undue delay in the processing and payment of valid invoices.

The number of late payments in each year represents a very small part of the total number of payments made. For example, in 2008, my Department made over 11,000 payments in Ireland, of which only 24 were late payments under the terms of the Acts mentioned above, less than 0.2% of the total payments made.

The following table gives the total amount of interest paid to suppliers in the past five years.