Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 338: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason for the delay in bringing forward the Enforcement of Fines Bill; and the further reason it does not feature on the legislative programme this term. [35513/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I am currently preparing a Fines Bill for which I intend to obtain government approval for publication in the near future. The Bill will include provisions dealing with the indexation of fines, payment of fines by instalment and equality of impact of fines imposed by the courts. These issues were also addressed in the Fines Bill published in 2007 which is still on the Order Paper. Work has also been on-going in my Department on the preparation of additional provisions which will give the courts new powers to deal with the situation where a person fails to pay a fine by the due date for payment.

As the proposed new Bill will incorporate redrafted provisions contained in the Bill published last year, I intend to seek government approval to withdraw the 2007 Bill from the Dáil Order Paper on publication of the Bill currently being drafted. So as not to give an impression that there are two separate Fines Bills, the Enforcement of Fines Bill has been excluded from the current session's legislative programme.