Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 166: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform to detail in respect of each prison the number of prisoners who, in the period 1 November 2009 to 31 October 2010, having been sentenced to terms of imprisonment for non-payment of a fine, were unconditionally released without such fine having been paid or with only a portion of such fine having been paid; the loss of revenue to the State resulting from the non-payment of such fines; the cost to the State of the process of securing the conviction and imprisonment of such offenders; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43330/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that a total of 5,889 persons were committed to prison in the time frame referred to as a result of the non-payment of a court ordered fine. It is not possible to provide all of the statistical information requested by the Deputy without the manual examination of the numerous records concerned and obviously this would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort which can not be justified in current circumstances where there are other significant demands on resources. However, I can advise that a sum total of €342,627.13 was collected by the Prison Service as payment towards fines during the period 1 November, 2009 to 30 September, 2010. I cannot provide figures for the 12 month period requested as full returns are not yet available for October 2010.

I cannot comment on the cost of securing such convictions as this is a matter which of its nature extends beyond the remit of my Department. In the context of costs associated with imprisonment, it should be noted that the number of persons imprisoned for non-payment of fines constitute an extremely small part of the prisoner population. On 15 November 2010, there was less than 0.4% of the prisoner population in this category.

I can inform you that the average cost of an available staffed prison space during the calendar year 2009 was €77,222 (€92,717 in 2008), a decrease on the 2008 cost of €15,495 or 16.7%. The decrease in average cost is attributed to the following two factors: - a decrease in total costs of €17.7 million (of which €15.5 million relates to pay costs); - and an increase in bed capacity of 495 from 3,611 as at 31 December, 2008 to 4,106 as at 31 December 2009.

As the Deputy will be aware, the recently enacted Fines Act 2010 will, I believe, provide further scope for keeping people out of the prison system. While the necessary arrangements have to be put in place by the Courts Service to fully facilitate its operation, I expect that the capacity to pay provisions in section 14 will be among the first features of the legislation to be commenced from early January, 2011. Section 14 places an obligation on the court to take account of the defendant's financial circumstances before a fine is imposed.