Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 60: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the timeframe for the proposed upgrade of the ICT system for the courts as well as the appointment of approved persons as receivers in order to introduce the remaining sections of the Fines Act; when he expects to receive this report, including implementation proposals, from the Courts Service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31229/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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As I have previously informed the House, the majority of the Fines Act 2010 has been commenced. It is particularly important to note the commencement of Section 14 of the Act, which for the first time placed an obligation on the court to take account of a person's financial circumstances before the amount of a fine, if any, to be imposed.

Implementation work is continuing on two key sections of the Act. Section 15 provides for the payment of fines by instalment. There are a number of practical and technical issues required to commence this provision. As the Deputy will appreciate, the current system of payment allows only for a single payment in respect of each fine to be made within a specified period and this payment is recorded on the Courts Service IT system, the Criminal Case Tracking System (CCTS). In order to allow for a fine to be paid by instalments over a year or in certain circumstances longer as the Act provides, it is necessary for the system to be substantially modified to allow for the payment of instalments and to ensure that such instalments are accurately recorded and tracked.

In that regard, I met with the Courts Service management and informed them of this Government's commitment to ensuring that payment by instalments is introduced as speedily as possible. I requested the Courts Service to consider the matter and to report back with implementation proposals before the end of October 2011. The Courts Service has now reported that work has commenced on the development of the specifications of the necessary changes required to the CCTS to facilitate implementation. The Service is also in the course of establishing a Project Board, which will be representative of the relevant business units, to oversee the development of the CCTS enhancements. Subject to funding availability, it will take approximately 12 months to complete the administrative and technical modifications required.

Section 16 of the 2010 Act will require a judge, consequent on determining that a fine is to be imposed, to make an order appointing an 'approved person', commonly referred to as a receiver, to recover the fine in the event of default.

The Courts Service is engaged in discussions with the Revenue Sheriffs, who have relevant experience through their work in the recovery of outstanding tax liabilities on behalf of the State, with a view to Sheriffs being nominated as approved persons. Again, some IT enhancements will be necessary in order to allow for the electronic transfer of recovery orders and data exchange with the receivers. This work will take approximately six months to complete and will be done concurrently with the other enhancement works already mentioned.

I should also point out that my Department is currently examining a number of proposed amendments to the 2010 Act which may be necessary to address some practical issues in terms of implementation. The Government remains committed to implementing the remaining provisions of the Fines Act 2010 as speedily as possible.