Organisation information
Prompt payment policy
From Department of Foreign Affairs
Published on
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We are committed to making every effort to pay our suppliers promptly. And you can help by ensuring that you provide:
- Correct invoices
- Accurate bank account details
- By ensuring that your Tax Clearance status with the Irish Revenue Commissioners is up to date
For public sector contracts worth €10,000 (inclusive of VAT) or more within any 12-month period, the contractor (and agent or sub-contractor as appropriate) will be required to produce either a valid tax clearance certificate or a C2 certificate. This is a mandatory. You can find full details on tax clearance procedures on the Revenue website.
Payment of invoices 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. It revoked the previous Statutory Instrument 388 of 2002.
The legislation allows that if the date or period for payment is not fixed in the contract, the creditor is entitled to interest for late payment upon the expiry of any of the following time-limits:
- 30 calendar days following the date of receipt of the invoice or an equivalent request for payment
- If the date of the receipt of the invoice or the equivalent request for payment is uncertain, 30 calendar days after the date of receipt of the goods or services
- Public Authorities will have to pay as a general rule, within 30 days
Payment of interest cannot be waived by the supplier and must be included with the amount payable for the goods or services without the supplier demanding its payment.
Since 16 March 2013, the applicable reference rate (rate applied by the ECB) plus the statutory interest for late payments is 8%. Small amounts of interest for late payment can be charged. You can check the ECB rate on the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland website or on the European Central Bank website.
There is no minimum interest payment applicable. In addition to receiving interest on late payment the supplier is also entitled to automatic compensation (without the need to issue a reminder) of a minimum of €40 if the invoice is less than €1,000. There is a scale of compensation detailed in the Schedule to the Statutory Instrument. The Schedule provides for the Amount of compensation payable under Regulation 9 as follows:
| Not exceeding €1000 | €40 |
| Exceeding €1,000 but not exceeding €10,000 | €70 |
| Exceeding €10,000 | €100 |
In addition, acceptance and verification procedure in public authorities to business (PA2B) must be provided by the contract. The maximum duration should not exceed 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of the goods/services unless otherwise expressly agreed in the contract and tender document and provided it is not grossly unfair to the creditor.
We have 10 working days to return an incorrect invoice and we must enclose a written statement identifying the alleged defects that prevent payment being made. Following our acceptance of the corrected invoice, we will do our best to issue payment within 15 days.
The legislation does not oblige us to pay a supplier who has failed or refused to comply with a request to produce a tax clearance certificate and it expressly extends the statutory time limit for payment where there are delays in furnishing a tax clearance certificate. Also, the Act does not affect the deduction of withholding tax from any payment to a supplier.
The Government introduced a further non-statutory requirement in June 2009 to reduce the payment period by Central Government Departments to their suppliers from 30 to 15 days. Every effort, consistent with proper financial procedures, is being made to ensure that all suppliers are paid within this timeframe.
We are obliged to publish quarterly statistical reports showing our performance in relation to prompt payments. Download these reports:
