John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Question 398: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality his proposals to accept payment of fines handed down by the courts in instalments or some other easy payment system to be applied to those who have no means and simply cannot pay in full or in one payment; the value of the fines outstanding and not paid to the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11548/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Fines Act 2010, which is being commenced on a phased basis, includes provision for the payment of fines in excess of €100 by instalment. Section 15, when commenced, will allow a person on whom such a fine has been imposed to make an application to the court to discharge payment in this way. If the court is satisfied that to require payment in full by the due date would cause undue hardship, it can direct that the fine be paid over a period of 12 months or exceptionally, over a 2 year period. It is intended to commence these provisions as soon as necessary enhancements have been made to the Courts Service ICT system.

I should add however, that section 14 of the Act has been commenced with effect from 4 January, 2011. This requires the court to take into account the person's financial circumstances before determining the amount of the fine, if any, to be imposed.

The value of fines outstanding is assessed on a rolling 12 month period. For the 12 months to the end of December 2010, the total value of fines imposed was €43m (120,000 fines). The total value of fines collectable after adjusting for appeals or cancellations was €29m (92,000) of which €21m (68,000) were paid giving a collection rate of 72% based on value and 74% based on volume. This leaves approximately €8m (24,000) fines outstanding in the year ending 31 December, 2010. This represents a significant improvement over an estimated collection rate of 50% in 2007 and in 2010 resulted in an estimated additional €8m in fines collected.