Written answers
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
Prison Committals
9:00 pm
Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context
Question 648: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of persons committed to prison for non-payment of fines in each of the years 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. [1936/10]
Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context
A breakdown of the number of persons committed to prison solely for non-payment of fines for each of the years 2006, 2007, 2008 is set out in the following table:
Year | Number of Persons |
2006 | 1,089 |
2007 | 1,335 |
2008 | 2,154 |
2009 (to 31/10/2009) | 3,366 |
The complete figure for 2009 will be available once the Annual Report of the Irish Prison Service for that year is finalised.
I can advise the Deputy that the number of such persons held in custody at any one time is a tiny fraction of the overall prisoner population. To illustrate this point, on 15 January, 2010 approximately 0.1 percent of the numbers in prison custody that day fell into this category.
I expect the number of such committals to fall substantially once the Fines Bill 2009 has been enacted.
No comments