Tánaiste Publishes Figures on Government Departments’ Earlier Payments to Business Suppliers

The Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan, T.D, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, today (Friday, 5th March, 2010), published the latest set of composite figures from returns from Government Departments on payments made to their respective business suppliers. The figures cover the last Quarter of 2009.

“This is now the second set of composite quarterly figures to be published since the Government decision in May of last year,” said the Tanaiste.

“The figures show that central Departments are making significant progress in meeting their requirement to pay suppliers within 15 days of receipt of a valid invoice. Across all Departments 97.9% of payments in value terms were paid within 15 days and this rose to 99.7% being paid within the 30 day statutory period.”

Under the new arrangements, Departments are now required to report quarterly to the Tánaiste’s Department on how they have complied with the Government commitment. The second returns published today cover the last quarter in 2009, (i.e. 1 October to 31 December). The table below shows the overall returns of Departments for Quarter 3 and Quarter 4 and also includes some revised Quarter 3 figures*.

These returns show:

• A total of 68,528 payments were made by Departments in the above period amounting to €1.634bn;

• 56,542 payments totaling €1.599bn were paid within 15 days. These payments represent 82.5 % of the total number of payments made by Departments, an increase of over 3% on revised Quarter 3 returns. In value terms 97.9% were paid within 15 days compared with 97.8% for revised Q3 figures.

• A further 8,682 or 12.7% were made between 16 and 30 days;

• Overall in value terms, 99.7% of payments during the period, amounting to €1.629bn, were paid within 30 days

• While there continued to be some variation between the performances of individual Departments, in respect of the number of invoices, 7 Departments were paying in excess of 90% of invoices within 15 days, (compared with 5 in the previous quarter); a further 6 Departments were paying in excess of 80% of invoices within 15 days, (compared with 7 in the previous quarter), while the remaining 2 had paid 47% and 66% of their invoices within 15 days;

• 13 Departments had paid between 96% and 100% of their invoices within 30 days, in respect of the number of invoices, while the remaining two Departments had paid 78% and 87% of invoices within 30 days.

“The latest tables show that Departments are continuing to make strong efforts to pay their suppliers within 15 days, and are playing their respective parts in assisting the cash flow of their suppliers, many of whom are Small and Medium Enterprises. I believe that the procedures and processes introduced last year are continuing to have a real impact in assisting Irish SMEs cash flow and I welcome this ongoing development.” the Tanaiste concluded.