Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 170: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the total number of persons that have served a prison sentence in each of the past three years to date in 2011 for failure to discharge debt to banks, individuals, companies or State institutions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12078/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that a total of 431 persons were committed to prison in the time-frame referred to, as a result of the non-payment of a court ordered debt. It is not possible to provide the full 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, a breakdown of the number of persons committed to prison solely for non-payment of debts for each of the years from 2008 to date is set out in the following table:

Debtor offences comprise a failure to meet loan repayments to banks and other financial institutions, including credit unions, but also include failure to pay maintenance debts, hire purchase agreements or creditor loans. As the Deputy will be aware debt is a civil matter and does not result in a criminal conviction. The Enforcement of Court Orders (Amendment) Act 2009 introduced a provision that a debtor cannot be subject to a committal order if he or she is simply unable to pay a debt. This legislation also provides that the debtor must be present in court and where appropriate shall have an entitlement to seek legal aid. The court must be satisfied that the debtor has the ability to pay but wilfully refuses to and that there are no goods to seize to satisfy the debt. The court may also request the debtor and creditor to seek resolution by mediation. Accordingly, a person can now only be imprisoned in default of a debt as a final resort, where the debtor can afford to pay but wilfully refuses to abide by the court order.