Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 134: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of people imprisoned in each of the past five years, to date in 2009, with respect to the non-payment of debts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16025/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Statistics on the number of committals to prison custody as a result of failure to comply with a court order in relation to the non-payment of a civil debt are set out in the following table. The table covers the years from 2004 to 2008.

I can advise the Deputy that the number of persons held in custody at any one time for this category of offence is a tiny fraction of the overall prisoner population. To illustrate this point, figures relating to 21 April, 2009 indicate that less than 0.4 percent of the numbers in prison custody fell into this category.