John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 144: To ask the Minister for Finance the progress the Government has made in the implementation of the single euro payments area initiative; the stage of implementation of this initiative, which will assist in the streamlining of business across the eurozone and result in a reduction in red tape and costs for businesses here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42784/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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For some years now the EU payments industry has been working to improve cross-border business activity by developing a pan-European electronic payments system for payments in euro, known as SEPA (the Single Euro Payments Area).

SEPA will be an area where consumers and companies can make and receive electronic payments in euro in Europe – whether between or within national boundaries, under the same basic conditions regardless of location.

The key components of SEPA are the new payments systems for:

- SEPA Credit Transfers (SCT), that is, making payments electronically from or into bank accounts, including the use of internet or telephone banking and which was launched on 28 January 2008;

- the SEPA Cards Framework, also launched on 28 January 2008; and

- the SEPA Direct Debit Scheme (SDD), which was launched on 2 November 2009.

The Payment Services Directive (PSD) provides the necessary legal framework to support the implementation of SEPA. It came into effect on 1 November 2009 and my Department transposed it through the European Communities (Payment Services) Regulations 2009 (S.I. No. 383 of 2009) to enable Ireland to apply the PSD's provisions by that date.

SEPA relates only to electronic payments and industry has a key role to ensure that competitive SEPA-compliant services are available on the market. The Irish Payments Services Organization, which administers domestic payment schemes on behalf of Irish banks, has put in place a national SEPA migration plan for the industry here. I look forward to the industry's roll out of each of the above components of SEPA.

Recognising that public authorities have a key role to play in promoting migration to SEPA based payments in Member States, given the large volumes of payments that are executed throughout the public sector, the Government is currently considering how best to leverage the payments that it makes and receives towards promoting the implementation of SEPA in this jurisdiction.

In order to further incentivise migration, the European Commission is considering legislation to establish legally-binding end-dates and a draft EU Regulation to give effect to this is expected to be published by the Commission in early 2011. My Department is monitoring the position and will assess any such proposal in due course, with a view to supporting the swift implementation of SEPA consistent with national goals and obligations.