Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Fines Payment and Recovery Bill 2013 will give courts the ability to attach a fine to earnings and directly recover the fine from a person's pay cheque. Courts will have to consider the financial circumstances of an offender in determining the level of a fine. The Bill will also put in place a system of receivers who will seize and sell property in order to recover the value of a fine, as well as a sliding scale of sentences for those who cannot or will not pay a court order fine. Community service is to be considered ahead of imprisonment. The purpose of the Bill is to assist towards the means of paying fines and in extending the means for recovering unpaid fines. It proposes to amend the system of fines and complete the process started under the Fines Act 2010. That Act created a modern, standardised system where all fines fall into one of five distinct classes, depending on value. This should be easily adjustable over time. It was also designed to provide a more flexible system of payment and recovery of fines, and to provide for alternatives where a person cannot pay a fine. This Bill allows for attachment of fines to earnings so that a fine will come out of a person's wage. If a person fails to pay a fine within a year options can be enforced by the courts but only after he or she has been summoned to a court meeting to determine the appropriate court action. Such options should provide for a recovery order, an attachment order or community service before imprisonment is considered. If effective, the Bill should greatly reduce the number of persons imprisoned for non-payment of a fine, along with the associated costs, and should increase State revenue through greater collection rates for fines.

This Government is committed to keeping the number of people committed to prison for non-payment of fines to the absolute minimum. We are also determined to ensure that court decisions are respected and complied with. Allowing everybody to pay a fine by instalment and the introduction of attachment of earnings are important new reforms to the fine collection system and will lead to improved collection rates for fines. The most recent statistics on fines are from the Courts Service annual report 2012 which show that in 2012, €14.177 million was collected, with 29% of fines being paid on-line. The compliance rate was 82%.

The courts will take into account a person's financial circumstances when determining the level of a fine so that the effect of the fine on that person or on his or her dependants will not be made significantly more severe by reason of his or her financial circumstances. While this system has been used in the past, the Bill provides for a more detailed legislative system to be put in place in respect of how judges will determine these matters. Financial circumstances are defined by the amount of the person's annual income; the aggregate value of all property, real and personal, belonging to the person; the aggregate amount of all liabilities of the person, including any duty, moral or legal, to provide financially for members of his or her family, or other persons; the aggregate of all moneys owing to the person, the dates upon which these fall due for payment, the likelihood of their being paid; and such other circumstances as the court considers appropriate.

When the Bill is enacted it will be easier for people to pay a fine. If they fail to do so there will be sufficient alternatives available to the courts that will all but eliminate the necessity to commit any person to prison for the non-payment of fines. That option will, however, remain. The Bill also contains a number of administrative changes that will improve the capacity of the courts to ensure that fines are paid.

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