Minister Ahern publishes the Fines Bill 2009

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Dermot Ahern, T.D., today published the Fines Bill 2009. The new legislation will introduce significant changes in the operation of the payment of fines which is expected to reduce numbers imprisoned for non payments.

Some of the main provisions of the Bill are –

o to provide for the payment of fines by means of instalments

o to give the courts power to make a recovery order, that is, non-payment of a fine by the due date for payment may be treated in the same manner as non-payment of a civil debt

o to give the courts power to impose a community service order for non-payment of a fine by the due date for payment.

o to provide an improved means of assessing the capacity of a person to pay a fine (equality of impact)

o to provide for the indexation of fines imposed by the District Court for summary offences, including summary conviction of certain indictable offences

o to raise fines, in line with the increases in District Court fines, imposed on certain offences on conviction on indictment

o to allow the courts to appoint a receiver to recover a fine or its equivalent value in property where a person has not paid the fine by the due date for payment and the fine  was imposed on conviction on indictment

Minister Ahern said: "The additional powers being given to the courts, where a person is in default of payment of a fine, are in line with Government commitment. I want to reduce, as far as possible, a dependence on imprisonment for default on payment of fines. I must emphasise that while very few persons are in prison at any one time solely for non-payment of a fine, I am determined through this legislation to further reduce those numbers."

The Minister said one new area in Irish law for the Bill was the concept of "equality of impact." This provides the Courts with the powers to inquire into the financial circumstances of a person and take into account the impact of those circumstances on the person or on his or her dependants before determining the amount of a fine to impose.
 
"We are also introducing instalment payments for offenders. This will allow the courts, on application, to grant the facility of payment of a fine by instalments where the financial circumstances of the offender warrant it.  This will further ease the impact of fines on persons of modest means by making payment easier without compromising the integrity of the fines system."

"Where summary fines are provided for in old statutes their value has been greatly eroded by inflation, lessening their impact. There will be no change in the real value of fines - they are simply being updated to bring their current value into line with their value at the time the fines were first introduced or last updated. The Bill will level the playing field by ensuring a socially equitable system for imposing and collecting fines. This will leave little scope for persons to be able to claim that they could not afford to pay the fine, no matter how modest their means.

"In addition, the new powers being given to the courts where a fine has not been paid by the due date should, in future, mean that imprisonment for default should become the exception rather than the rule."

The Bill is available on the Oireachtas website – www.oireachtas.ie.

 
20 April 2009