Ivana Bacik (Independent)

As I stated, I do not accept administrative expediency as a reason for imposing what I would describe as an arbitrary limit of €100 and for this reason, I will press the amendment.

There does not appear to be any good reason for providing that the power to pay in instalments will apply only to fines of €100 or greater. This approach will lead to hardship and have the unfortunate outcome of courts imposing higher fines than they would otherwise have done to enable people to pay in instalments. The current provision may result in the administratively awkward practice of courts imposing fines of €101 to ensure people have the capacity to pay in instalments. In principle the amendment is worth pressing.