Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 415: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the date on which he envisages the full commencement of the Fines Act 2010; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35652/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The majority of the Fines Act 2010 has been commenced and I recently announced in the context of the capital estimates that funding will be made available during 2012 for the full implementation of the remaining sections. It is important to note that Section 14 of the Act which was commenced earlier this year, for the first time places an obligation on the court to take account of a person's financial circumstances before deciding on 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 to be addressed to commence this provision. 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.

Earlier this year 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. The Courts Service has now reported to me that work has commenced on the development of the specifications of the necessary changes required to the CCTS to facilitate implementation. The Service has also established a Project Board to oversee the development of the CCTS enhancements. 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.