Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

These are drafting amendments. The Parliamentary Counsel has decided that section 14(6), while correct, does not fit comfortably into section 14. The purpose of the subsection is to establish the appropriate period of imprisonment when a fine has been partially paid by instalments. This is already achieved in the inserted section 2A to section 17(3) of the Courts (No. 2) Act 1986 in regard to defaults on fines imposed on indictment.

A similar provision relating to fines imposed on summary conviction has now been included in the intersected subsection (1)(b) of the amended section 2 of the 1986 Act. This is a more obvious place for these amendments because the relevant provisions in section 17 already deal with appropriate periods of imprisonment, where the receiver can only recover part of the crime or the proceeds from seized goods might only satisfy part of the fine.

The same definition of "fine" is being added to section 2A of the Courts (No. 2) Act 1986 to ensure that it does not include the fees and expenses of the receiver. These are relevant solely to section 15.

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