Big business and Government agencies are forcing smaller enterprises to wait more than two months to be paid for the goods and services they supply, a survey released today claims.

The Irish Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Association (Isme) credit-watch survey shows that members waited an average of 63 days to be paid during the second quarter, three days longer than in the preceding three months.

The group says the survey of 826 of its members found that 28 per cent experienced delays of three months or more, while 6 per cent were waiting more than 120 days. Fewer than 2 per cent of them charged late interest.

Only 2.5 per cent of smaller businesses charged late payment interest, which legislation allows them to do where customers fail to pay their bills on time.

The figures prompted Isme chief executive Mark Fielding to accuse the Government of allowing its own agencies and big businesses to ignore the voluntary code on prompt payments.

Lack of support

Mr Fielding said the Government needed to introduce a mandatory 30-day payment period for all businesses trading here. His organisation says it could be phased in over three years. However, he said the group is not optimistic the Government will agree and claimed that efforts by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation to introduce a Fair Payment Charter had collapsed due to lack of support from big business and lobbying by business group Ibec.