Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

While there can be hardship cases, equally we need to safeguard against people playing the old soldier. I have come across people who do not pay their television licence fees and have other financial commitments they do not meet. Often if their lifestyles are examined it is not that they cannot afford to pay, but that they have made a conscious decision to prioritise some other entertainment facet of their lives. Therefore the system needs to have penalties. I agree that imprisoning people for such offences does not achieve anything. Often the money is never recovered as a consequence of doing that. It is also a cost on the State. There are economic reasons apart from anything else.

As I have said previously, I support the principle of attachment of earnings or social welfare payments not only in this area but also in respect of a range of offences. We should pursue that route. I ask the Minister of State to encourage the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and his Department to consider pursuing this route for these kinds of offences. One of the issues that arises when we debate prisons is the overcrowding and the need to create more spaces which is very costly. Therefore, we should have a system that sanctions as many people as possible in a different way, including community service etc., rather than jail. I have often come across cases of people who went to jail as fairly amateur criminals and emerge well educated in more serious crime because of the friends they made on the inside. We should also avoid that.