Failure to pay fines will not lead to jail

New payment systems will be put in place by the end of the year that will “effectively eliminate” jail time for fine defaulters — almost six years after laws inaugurating the shift were enacted.

People who fail to pay court fines have increasingly clogged up prisons since the recession — with numbers doubling between 2009 and 2014, when almost 9,000 were jailed.

The Courts Service will soon have a system in place — through post offices — allowing for the payment of fines by instalments.

For those who refuse to pay, there will be a separate system whereby judges can order the deduction of monies at source from a person’s wages.

The announcement comes as the Courts Service Annual Report 2014 shows a “dramatic” fall in personal debt cases — a trend thought to reflect a recovery in the economy and a more humane approach by financial institutions.

However, fine defaulters accounted for almost half of all people committed to prison last year, placing a massive burden on prisons in processing them into, and out from, jails, as many are released after a couple of hours or overnight.

The Garda Inspectorate has previously said that the system involves a “daily waste of resources” for the criminal justice system, including gardaí, who have to execute penal warrants and collect money from defaulters and, if they refuse, bring them to prison. Official figures show almost 89,000 penal warrants remained unexecuted last year, with uncollected fines valued in unknown millions of euro.

Legislation was first published in 2007 to deal with fine defaulting, but didn’t become law until May 2010, by which stage the number of jailed defaulters had risen to 6,683, from 2,520 in 2008.

Under the Fines Act 2010, defaulters would only be jailed in the “most exceptional circumstances”.

Legal problems, including powers to enable courts to impose deductions from wages, and technical issues, such as the physical and IT infrastructure to administer payment, has delayed implementation.

The Courts Service told the Department of Justice in 2010 it needed resources to make the necessary computer changes and some €400,000 was made available in Budget 2012. The Courts Service said the computer changes would take 12 months to implement, but pointed out this could only be done once the legal provisions were introduced.

The Fines (Payment and Recovery) Bill was published in October 2012 to address the legal issues, and was enacted in April 2014.

Launching the Courts Service annual report, Chief Justice Susan Denham said: “We have reached a point where people are being accommodated in every way to pay fines. In this regard I am glad to confirm that by year’s end we will be ready to roll out payment of fines by instalment in post offices across the country.”

The Courts Service is at an advanced stage in its discussions with An Post, the preferred bidder, and the contract is expected to be signed in the coming weeks.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said that, in addition to the instalment provision and the attachment orders, the Fines Act 2014 also introduced community service and the appointment of receivers.

She said these represent “a very significant change in the way justice is administered by the courts”.

Ms Fitzgerald added: “There are major changes in information technology required to ensure that the instalment payment system operates effectively and that the necessary accounting procedures are in place for the recording of payments.”

She said she looked forward to the start of the new system “in the autumn”, slightly earlier than flagged by the Chief Justice.

The attachment of earnings provision cannot be applied to people on social welfare, as they were excluded for legal reasons.

These provisions will not apply to people who do not pay water charges.

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