Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was just speaking to my colleague, Senator Jennifer Murnane O'Connor, who highlighted an important issue related to this section also. Fixed penalty notices are the way to go. They make sense. The justice system and the courts are clogged up enough without having to deal with minor offences such as these. The comparator would be fixed penalty notices for driving offences such as speeding which start at €80. In this instance, they start at €150. Presumably the system is staggered, depending on the nature of the offence involved, and that there is not just a flat rate of €150, irrespective of the severity of the offence involved. I am not even sure what the offences could or would be. Will the Minister give examples of offences and tell us whether she believes a sum of €150 is appropriate? Should lower sums be specified staggered upwards according to severity?

Amendment 1ak relates to increasing the payment period from 21 days to 30. This is a reasonable request as most people are paid monthly. These are new financial times in which people are in mortgage distress and have bills to pay and so on. In the financial calendar credit cards, etc. work on a 30-day period. Would it not be reasonable, therefore, to increase the period to 30 days?

Senator Jennifer Murnane O'Connor will speak on this issue in more detail, but I agree that there should be some appeals mechanism at the fixed penalty notice level. It is most likely that the only way to appeal it will be to not pay it, meaning that the person concerned will end up in the courts. There should be some internal appeals mechanism similar to the appeals system in the Department of Social Protection whereby individuals could within 30 days register their grievance or appeal. Within a further 30 days, Waterways Ireland would issue a response. Perhaps there might be some such mechanism.