Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

An unfortunate difficulty with this legislation, which, in fairness, was enacted by the previous Government and had support from the Opposition side of the House at the time, is that no arrangements were put in place in advance of the legislation's enactment to ensure that the software that the courts system required to operate the provisions on the payment of fines by instalments would be readily available, and we have had to start that work. I was surprised to discover that was the position. It is in the public interest that we have this instalment system. It is in the interests of ensuring the integrity of court orders is maintained.

I do not want to give an unrealistic timeframe because there are cost issues in putting in place the software system. I expect within a relatively short period, because I have had a number of conversations with officials within my Department on this issue, to have a clear view of the timeframe. I am disappointed it has not proved possible to start on the instalment issue much earlier.

I have the other information Deputy Staunton sought available and will provide it to him in writing so that I do not get into time trouble again.

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