Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 212: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his views on the fact that Deutsche Bank estimates the total cost, including wages, of processing a single invoice is €17.60, that private companies can take over this process, move suppliers to an e-invoicing system and only charge 24 cent per invoice, that the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation confirms that Government Departments processed 228,773 invoices in 2010 and that this indicates that there is a potential to save almost €4 million annually by switching to e-invoicing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19862/11]

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The National Procurement Service (NPS) in the Office of Public Works is tasked with supporting procurement-related savings across the public service. An area with potential for achieving savings for buyers and suppliers in the whole procure-to-pay process is the widespread adoption of electronic invoicing for public sector bodies and for business to business transactions in Ireland.

In examining the potential for the implementation of electronic invoicing, the NPS has met with a number of public sector bodies which are considering implementing this technology, or which have already commenced pilot projects. The NPS has also met with a number of service providers in the marketplace and looked at the implementation in other EU Member states (Denmark) and has been in contact with the European Commission in relation to the current projects under way in this area. Savings are achieved by reducing the administrative overhead involved when dealing with paper invoices; this applies to both the public and private sectors.

While progressing developments on the initiative the NPS was requested by the European Commission to establish a National Multi-Stakeholder Forum on eInvoicing. This has been done. Standards in e-invoicing are due to be agreed at European level later this year. At this time the NPS will be in a better position to decide on the appropriate approach to acquiring this service for the wider public sector. It is vital that the systems offered, by the various service providers, are interoperable so that suppliers can use one system to send invoices to all the public sector bodies with which they have dealings. It is hoped that the Forum will allow for consultation and can provide agreement and direction on eInvoicing initiatives.