Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

445. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount paid in late interest payments and penalty payments by her Department in each of the years 2017 to 2020 and to date in 2021 in respect of late payments being made to suppliers, service providers and contractors in tabular form; and the measures she has put in place and or is implementing to reduce late payment interest and penalty payments. [44000/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, under the Prompt Payment Act 1997, and later the SI 580 2012 European Communities (Late Payment in Commercial Transactions) Regulations 2012, my Department is required to pay Prompt Payment Interest on valid invoices that are not processed within 30 days.  In this scenario the Department applies a daily 8% interest rate (which is the ECB rate of 0.00% plus the margin of 8%) followed by a compensating amount based on the value of the invoice, as follows: Invoice Amount not exceeding €1,000 - Compensation of €40; Invoice Amount exceeding €1,000 but not exceeding €10,000 - Compensation of €70; and Invoice Amount exceeding €10,000 - Compensation of €100.

My Department monitors these payments to ensure that they are paid as promptly as possible and to reduce the possibility of Prompt Payment Interest and associated compensation being applied.

At present my Department provides a financial shared service to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (D/FHERIS). From January 2020 to March 2021 all published Prompt Payment returns for the Department of Education and D/FHERIS were reported under the Department of Education. This was due to the establishment of D/FHERIS during 2020 and the requirement for both Departments to use a common financial management system until the system was updated. Following the successful update to the financial management system, from April 2021 onwards the system is able to fully separate out the Prompt Payment returns between the two Departments.

All Prompt Payment amounts are published each quarter and can be found here – www.gov.ie/en/collection/396d1d-prompt-payment-returns/

The following is a summary by year of the costs included in the published reports since 2017.

- 2017: € 4,137

- 2018: € 5,014

- 2019: € 7,552

- 2020: € 7,270

- 2021 (Jan-Jun): €9,654