People unable to pay debts cannot be jailed

YOUR report headlined ‘Ahern targets maintenance loophole (January 25) fails to make it clear it is contrary to the law of the land and to a person’s fundamental human rights to imprison those who are unable to pay their civil debts, however those debts arise.

Whatever difficulties exist for collecting maintenance, they will certainly not be eased by imprisoning people who cannot pay the debt at all.

Indeed, even imprisoning people who can pay would seem like an own goal as it can affect the capacity of the person owing the money to pay – and that is surely not very useful in maintenance cases.