John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise again an issue that I referred to in the House a number of months ago. According to today's newspaper reports, 8,300 people were sent to jail for non-payment of fines last year, which is a 10% increase on 2011. The average weekly cost of keeping somebody in jail is €1,260 which is €65,500 per annum. If the average fine was €500 and we are not collecting it, then that sum is lost to the economy. To compound the issue, however, we are sending people to jail at a cost to the taxpayer of €1,260 because we did not collect the €500 fine.

The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, is blaming the Judiciary for sending people to jail for non-payment of fines, instead of making them do community service. However, we are sitting on legislation to amend the Fines Act so that we would have the power to deduct any fines directly from somebody's wages or social welfare payments.

There have been several cases of repeat offenders who have no intention of paying their car insurance, car tax or television licence fees. They are simply going to jail at a cost to the taxpayer and the money is not being collected. Instead of talking about cutting the pay of employees in the Department of Justice and Equality, why are Members allowing this waste of money to happen? I call on the Leader to urge the Minister for Justice and Equality to speed up the introduction of this legislation in order that the State can begin to collect money that is there to be collected, rather than spending money by sending people to jail.