Bill payment loopholes ‘must be dealt with’

THE “sharp practice” of those who feel they can avoid paying bills by using loopholes to open up as a new company must be tackled, the Government has been told.

Former minister of state Trevor Sargent also claimed in the Dáil the lack of prompt payment is hurting and killing struggling businesses.

He called for the extension of prompt payment legislation to private businesses, particularly farmers, in the interest of protecting jobs, food security and family homes.

The Green Party TD said growers and farmers are not like short-term business models. They must think in two-year or 15-month cycles and they need working capital.

“They are the bedrock of our economic recovery and, if they cannot get working capital and if they are not around, we will not have an economic recovery,” he said.

The former minister said there has already been a fall-off in the numbers of growers and farmers, particularly in horticulture.

“It is in all of our interests to ensure prompt payment of bills is enforced and that legislation is in place so that we can introduce measures to ensure farmers do not go out of business as a result,” he said.

Meanwhile, Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association president Jackie Cahill has called on the new Financial Regulator to urgently address the credit crisis in farming and in small and medium enterprises.

He said essential and seasonal working capital for farmers must be made available; excessive and unjustified hikes in bank interest rates must be outlawed; and existing borrowings must be restructured over a longer period.

Mr Cahill said farming, because of the security which banks hold on farm land in Ireland, is low risk, yet it is being penalised and this is causing a danger to the survival and recovery of the sector.