Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I accept that. If people knew the system, they should not go to jail for debts. A court will not require them to pay a debt they cannot pay. A court will not order someone to pay an amount of their income that they need to live on. The instalment payment system introduced by the Fines Act has been a step forward in this regard.

Over the years I have seen people go to jail for the non-payment of ordinary debts. The only reason this happened was because they did not understand that if they went to court, admitted their debt, had the court examine their means, then the court could not order them to pay more than they could reasonably afford. I encourage people to use MABS, the free advisory budgeting agency, which will give them this advice.

This is not a licence for people to ignore their debts, however. The Fines Act does ensure people are not sent to jail unnecessarily. While we must acknowledge the prisons are not exactly full of debtors, I agree there are other approaches in dealing with this issue.