Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 183: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of persons imprisoned for non-payment of a civil debt or fine in the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter and fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter, second quarter, and third quarter of 2009 Central Statistics Office's timeframes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41093/09]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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It is not possible to provide figures to the Deputy as requested as this would require the manual examination of records going back over a considerable time period. Such an examination would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort and could not be justified in current circumstances where there are other significant demands on resources.

A breakdown of the number of persons committed to prison solely for non-payment of fines or civil debt offences for each of the years 2008 and 2009 is set out in the following table.

I can advise the Deputy that the number of such persons held in custody at any one time is a tiny fraction of the overall prisoner population. To illustrate this point, on 11 November, 2009 approximately 0.4 percent of the numbers in prison custody that day fell into the fines category. On the same day there were no persons in prison for custody for non-payment of a civil debt.