9,000 jailed for not paying a fine
It now accounts for more than half of all committals — placing a considerable burden on the prison system in terms of processing fine defaulters into prison and, within a couple of hours or at most overnight, discharging them again.
The 10% increase in committals — to 8,965 — in 2014 marks a return to rising numbers after cases fell, for the first time, in 2013.
Official figures show that the number of committals have jumped by 34% since the Fines Act 2010 was enacted — under which fine defaulters would only be jailed in the “most exceptional circumstances”.
Technical and legal issues including powers to enable courts to impose installment payments from defaulters’ wages have delayed the implementation.
The Fines (Payment and Recovery) Act 2014, first published as a bill in October 2012, was introduced to address the legal problem.
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald told the Dáil this week that “preparations for the new system will be completed” by this October.
Irish Penal Reform Trust deputy director Fíona Ní Chinnéide, said: “Imprisoning people for non-payment of fines impacts disproportionately on the less well off.
“It is a pointless waste of taxpayers’ money, creates an additional burden on a strained prison system, and achieves nothing.
“Two Fines Acts were passed by the Oireachtas in 2010 and 2014, but still the practice continues in 2015. It is simply unacceptable that the Courts Service has been unable to progress the facility to pay fines by instalment over the last four years, despite commitments by successive ministers for justice. Real action on ending the practice of imprisonment for fines is long overdue.”
A Fines Bill was first introduced in 2007, followed by the 2010 legislation.
Then minister Dermot Ahern said at the time that in addition to payment installments, the act provided a range of alternatives to prison for defaulting, including recovery orders and community service.
“Imprisonment in the event of default will be a last resort,” he said.
Responding to a parliamentary question from party colleague Fergus O’Dowd TD this week, Ms Fitzgerald said the Fines Act (Payment and Recovery) Act 2014 was signed into law last April.
“The aim of the legislation is to seek to effectively eliminate, in so far as is possible, the need for judges to commit anyone to prison for the non-payment of a fine,” she said.
“As well as introducing an option for persons to pay fines by instalment, there are also changes in the way those who fail to pay fines are dealt with, with a range of options available to judges including recovery orders, attachment of earnings, community service and ultimately imprisonment.”
She said the Court Service was working on the implementation.
This included the outsourcing of all aspects of fines’ recovery to an external provider.
“It is expected that all the preparations for the new system will be completed by the third quarter of 2015,” the minister said.
Committals for fine defaulting:
- 2014 — 8,965
- 2013 — 8,121
- 2012 — 8,304
- 2011 — 7,514
- 2010 — 6,683
- 2009 — 4,806
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