Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

This is all based around the concept of equality of impact which works both ways. Obviously, the judge cannot impose a fine of more than €5,000, the overall limit for the District Court. Equally, in individual cases judges cannot impose a fine greater than the maximum that pertains to the particular offence. However, the intention is to allow discretion to the judge to take into account the personal circumstances.

The recommendations of the Law Reform Commission state:

The reforming legislation should also provide that when a court is determining the amount of a fine it should, in so far as is practicable, have regard to, amongst other factors, the financial circumstances of the offender and the nature of the burden that payment of a particular fine will impose upon the offender and his dependants. In this regard the legislation should also provide that a court should have regard to such matters irrespective of whether the effect of so doing would be to increase or reduce the amount of the fine.

Clearly, the view always was that this fine could go up or down and that it was entirely a matter for the discretion of the judge to determine the otherwise appropriate fine. I have tried to deal with this. We reformulated the subsection and that is why a Government amendment was tabled. The original subsection was that with which Senators found fault.