Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 300: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, further to Parliamentary Question No. 93 of 23 June 2011, if this Deputy is correct in calculating that approximately 49,000 invoices must be paid by all Government Departments each quarter and that approximately 195,000 invoices must be paid by all Government Departments per annum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18416/11]

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Since 2009, Central Government Departments have been obliged to pay their suppliers within 15 days of receipt of a valid invoice. This 15 day prompt payment rule was introduced to Government Departments on an administrative basis only and does not alter the current legal position on late payments as covered by the European Communities (Late Payment in Commercial Transactions) Regulations 2002 (S.I. No. 388 of 2002). These 2002 Regulations transposed EU Directive 2000/35/EC on Late Payment in Commercial Transactions into Irish law.

Details in relation to the payment performance of Central Departments in respect of suppliers are collated by my Department on the basis of individual quarterly returns submitted by the Departments. This information is published on my Department's website and is available at http://www.djei.ie/enterprise/smes/publications.htm.

To date, returns have been received and published in respect of the last two quarters of 2009, the full year 2010 and the first quarter of 2011. The table below gives a summary of the details in respect of each quarter. Based on these returns, the average number of quarterly payments was 64,060 in 2009, 57,193 in 2010 and 48,587 in 2011 to date. The only full year for which details have been collected was 2010 and the total number of payments for this year was 228,773.

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