Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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22. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the cost her Department incurred in each of the past five years due to debit and credit card payment services and banking fees; the financial institutions to which the payments were made; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37436/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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My Department, including a number of its Offices, holds a number of Public Bank Accounts to enable it to conduct its financial transactions, including paying staff and suppliers and collecting payment for services provided to clients of the Department and its Offices. The Department’s Public Bank Accounts are currently held with Danske Bank. This follows on from a procurement process conducted by the Department for the provision of banking services. Previously, the Department held accounts with Bank of Ireland and Investec and a number of its Offices held accounts with Ulster Bank. The Department received the necessary sanction to hold these accounts from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Insofar as banking fees are concerned, details of the bank charges and fees, as well as interest earned in each of the past five years, paid in respect of the aforementioned accounts are set out in the table below.

The majority of the Department’s financial transactions are effected through Electronic Funds Transfer. It is the case, however, that a number of the Department’s business units, including a number of its Offices, provide services to clients in respect of which charges are imposed. Clients have the facility to pay for certain services by means of credit and/or debit card. To facilitate payment by card, the business units concerned entered into agreements with a number of merchant acquiring and gateway services providers. These agreements are delivered under a supplier framework agreement entered into by the Office of Government Procurement, which runs until June 2020.

The payments made to the merchant acquiring and gateway services providers concerned to facilitate payment by debit and credit cards in each of the past five years are set out in the table below.

*The payments to the Local Government Management Board are in respect of payment card charges incurred prior to the introduction of the OGP framework agreement.