Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Question 374: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the cost per day to detain a person in Wheatfield Prison, Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2463/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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1Details on the average cost of an available staffed prison space are published in the Irish Prison Service Annual Reports under three headings - Open Prisons, Closed Prisons and High Security Prisons. They are not published for individual prisons.

Wheatfield Prison is a Closed Prison for which the average cost in 2010 (the latest year for which figures are available) was €71,447 (€79,307 in 2009), a decrease on the 2009 cost of €7,860 or 9.9%. The annual 2010 figure of €71,447 is equivalent to a daily figure of €195.74.

These figures are averages and include fixed costs.

Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Question 375: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons who have been sent to prison for minor offences such as TV licence and road traffic fines; if he is considering an alternative to such practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2464/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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2057In 2010, the Irish Prison Service recategorised the offence groups under which prisoners' convictions are recorded. Statistics are now compiled using the same groups as those used by An Garda Síochána, the Central Statistics Office, the Courts Service and the Probation Service.

Details on persons committed to prison for non payment of court ordered fines for TV licence and road traffic offences are set out in the following table:

The 2011 figures are provisional pending the publication of the Irish Prison Service Annual Report.

I can advise the Deputy that the number of such persons held in custody at any one time is a minute fraction of the overall prisoner population. To illustrate this point, on today's date, only 5 prisoners or 0.1% of the prison population of 4,155 are detained in custody for non payment of road traffic fines with no one imprisoned for TV licence fines.

The Deputy may also wish to note that the Fines Act 2010 includes a number of provisions designed to minimise the level of fine default and where it does occur, to ensure, as far as possible, that fine defaulters are not committed to prison. In particular, under Section 14 of the Act, the court must consider the financial circumstances of the person before the amount of the fine is determined. There are also provisions in the Act, that I intend to commence in 2012, allowing for the payment of fines by instalments; the appointment of receivers to recover outstanding fines (or property to the value of those fines); and the substitution of community service orders for fines, where they remain unpaid after the receiver has completed his or her work.

I am also committed to pursuing alternatives to custody. The Criminal Justice (Community Service) (Amendment) Act 2011 commenced on 1 October last and requires judges when considering imposing a sentence of imprisonment of 12 months or less to first consider the appropriateness of community service as an alternative to imprisonment. I expect that these measures, taken together, will all but eliminate the need to commit persons to prison for non-payment of fines.