Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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541. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department has taken legal advice regarding its compliance with the law in respect of prompt payment for small businesses; and if his Department will arrange to make a payment immediately of all outstanding monies to an accommodation provider (details supplied). [21255/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Every effort is being made to pay businesses as promptly as possible in respect of Ukraine accommodation. The Deputy will be aware of the challenges involved given the scale of accommodation provision (now standing at 53,000 serviced and emergency accommodation beds provided).

Payment of invoices by my Department is governed by the Prompt Payment of Accounts Act, 1997 as amended by the Statutory Instrument 580 of 2012, which took effect on 16 March 2013 and transposes EU Directive 2011/7/EU on Combating Late Payment in Commercial Transactions. As such, prompt payment interest is payable and has been paid as necessary to providers by my Department, including to the provider mentioned in Details Supplied in recent days.

I am advised by my officials that the Department is not aware of any advice request having been made regarding the Departments compliance with the law in respect of prompt payment for small businesses.

My Department is prioritising maintaining a practice of more timely payments, including providing more resources to address any issues, and outsourcing of elements of the process to speed up processing and to respond to supplier calls. Any delays in making payments are deeply regretted and my Department is according this issue very high priority.

With regard to the provider referred to, I am advised by my officials that a substantial portion of the outstanding balance owed to the provider mentioned in the Details Supplied issued in recent days and that further payments are expected to issue in the coming weeks pending final checks. My officials continue to engage with the provider to ensure that processing delays will be kept to a minimum in the future.

My Department will continue to press on to eliminate the backlog while ensuring appropriate governance is in place to safeguard the proper spending of Exchequer funding.