Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
1048. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the length of time it is taking to process payment for service providers who are providing accommodation for international protection applicants fleeing the war in Ukraine; the average processing time; and the longest any of the service providers have waited for payment. [36609/23]
View answerI am advised by my officials that purchase order number requests from Ukraine accommodation providers currently issue back to the supplier within one working day. Upon receipt of invoice with the purchase order, the invoice is processed in the following days with payment typically issuing within a week. In the event that an issue arises with the invoice, my officials contact providers to advise. Payment may be delayed if inadequate invoices are submitted or if amounts billed for are not adequately evidenced with supporting detail. In this regard, an ongoing disagreement between the Department and one provider led to a delay in invoices being paid to that provider for periods up to six months. This issue is now being resolved.
My Department has put in place a number of steps to reduce the time taken to complete payments in recent months. Since the start of June 2023, over 1600 payments have issued to a value of almost €220m for accommodation alone in respect of Ukraine. Additional automation is expected to be introduced shortly which will greatly improve processing times by the Department.
I can also advise the Deputy that the UKR Payments mailbox is manned by a dedicated team responding to providers daily while a dedicated call centre is also in place to take calls from providers.
