Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons committed to prison for non-payment of fines in 2012; if he will provide comparative figures for the previous three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4120/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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A breakdown of the number of persons imprisoned solely for non-payment of fines for each of the years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 is set out in the table.

* The 2012 figure is 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 tiny fraction of the overall prisoner population. To illustrate this point, on 25 January, 2013, 7 people, 0.16 percent, out of a prison population of 4,182 in custody that day fell into this category.