Parliamentary Questions

119. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will report on the use of the court poor box for penalty point offences in view of the fact that it is still happening in some courts despite a High Court ruling in February 2014 against the practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42063/17]

Minister for Justice and Equality (Deputy Charles Flanagan): The court poor box is a non-statutory system used by the District Courts to impose a financial charge on a defendant to be used for a charitable purpose, usually instead of imposing a criminal conviction. Payments made to the court poor box are accounted for by the court office concerned and the accounting procedures are subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Generally, charities are the recipients of poor box contributions but the decision is solely at the discretion of the Judge who is independent in the matter of sentencing, as in other matters concerning the exercise of judicial functions, subject only to the Constitution and the law.
My Department has made enquiries of the Courts Service in the matter and the following table sets out by District the number of persons who received the Poor Box for penalty point offences from Jan 2015 to 30 September 2017. The Deputy will note from the table that the number of persons who received the Poor Box for penalty point offences for 2016 (258) represented a reduction of 70% approx. on the 2015 position (843).

District NO	Court Area	Jan - Dec 2015	Jan - Dec 2016	Jan - Sept 2017
1	AN CLOCHAN LIATH	1
District No 1 Total		1
2	BALLYSHANNON	10	1
	CARRICK ON SHANNON	23	3	2
	DONEGAL	4	3
	MANORHAMILTON	2
	SLIGO	70	3	1
	TUBBERCURRY	4	1
District No 2 Total		113	11	3
3	Castlebar		1
District No. 3 Total			1
	Ballinasloe		5	1
4	LOUGHREA	2	6	6
	STROKESTOWN			1
	ROSCOMMON	1
	TUAM	4	3	6
District No 4 Total		7	14	14
5	CARRICKMACROSS	5
	CAVAN	8	2
	MONAGHAN	3
	VIRGINIA	12	2
District No 5 Total		28	4
6	ARDEE		2
	DROGHEDA			8
6	DUNDALK	1		8
District No 6 Total		1	2	16
7	GALWAY		3	6
District No 7 Total			3	6
	TIPPERARY		1
District No. 8 Total			1
9	ATHLONE	3	1	3
	LONGFORD	1
	MULLINGAR	7	4	2
District No 9 Total		11	5	5
12	GORT		1
12	ENNIS	2
	KILRUSH	1
District No 12 Total		3	1
15	PORTLAOISE	33	7
	TULLAMORE	17
District No 15 Total		50	7
16	BRAY			1
District No. 16 Total				1
17	AN DAINGEAN	1	1	3
	KENMARE	2	1	2
	KILLARNEY	8	3	2
	KILLORGLIN	4	1	2
	LISTOWEL	2	5	3
	TRALEE	23	5	9
District No 17 Total		40	16	21
18	BANDON	15	8	1
	BANTRY	7	1
	CLONAKILTY	2	1
	MACROOM	47	5	1
	SKIBBEREEN	1		1
District No 18 Total		72	15	3
20	FERMOY	64		1
	MALLOW	104	1	3
District No 20 Total		168	1	4
21	CARRICK ON SUIR	8	7	9
	CASHEL	4		1
	CLONMEL	3	2	2
	DUNGARVAN	71	53	32
	LISMORE	10	7	6
	YOUGHAL	6	4	1
District No 21 Total		102	73	51
22	CARLOW	26
	KILKENNY	9
District No 22 Total		35
23	GOREY	4
District No 23 Total		4
24	WATERFORD CITY	28	8	3
District No 24 Total		28	8	3
25	NAAS	4	1
District No 25 Total		4	1
DMD	DUBLIN METROPOLITAN DISTRICT	176	95	96
DMD Total		176	95	96
Total		843	258	223

The Deputy will also be aware that in February 2014, the Government approved the drafting of a Criminal Justice (Community Sanctions) Bill to replace the Probation of Offenders Act 1907 with modern provisions dealing with community sanctions and the role of the Probation Service in the criminal justice system. The Bill is currently being drafted by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel.
It is intended that the legislation will abolish the court poor box and replace it with a statutory Reparation Fund to provide for a fair, equitable and transparent system of reparation that will apply only to minor offences dealt with by the District Court.