Almost 7,000 people jailed for failing to pay fines

NEARLY 7,000 people have been jailed for failing to pay fines up to the end of November — the highest number in recent years.

Official figures show 6,969 people were imprisoned for the non-payment of fines by last month — compared to 6,683 for all of 2010.

This is despite the introduction of laws 18 months ago which were supposed to stop the imprisonment of fine defaulters.

But a key part of that act — allowing the payment of fines by installment — has not been introduced because funding was not provided to update the Courts Service computer system.

The required €400,000 funding was announced by Justice Minister Alan Shatter in Budget 2012. The Courts Service said once the money was provided it would take around 12 months for the system to be updated.

The number of fine defaulters being imprisoned has jumped fivefold since 2007.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) is calling on the various agencies — the judiciary, the gardaí and the Justice Minister — to exercise “greater flexibility” in dealing with this area.

Executive director Liam Herrick said: “The minister has committed to making funds available in 2012 to upgrade the courts’ ICT system to facilitate payment of fines by instalment, and he has stated that it will take 12 months to complete the work.

“In the meantime, thousands continue to be imprisoned every year — at great cost to the state — and the issue remains urgent.

“IPRT is calling on all agencies to work together and review how they operate the current system to see whether there can be greater flexibility around the payment of fines in the interim period.”

He added: “While it’s up to the agencies themselves to come up with practical solutions, one solution might be if judges could find ways for administering the payment of fines without prescribing automatic penalties of imprisonment for non-payment.

“There may also be room for flexibility around how the gardaí execute warrants, or the minister could review the possibility of remitting some categories of fines as an exceptional measure.”

Prison Service figures show that fine defaulters made up 39% of all committals in 2010 but accounted for less than 1% of people in custody on any given day, as most were released shortly after entry.