Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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156. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the amount of money collected by Swords District Court from persons appearing in court making donations to the court poor box in the years 2011, 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014. [8508/14]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The court poor box is a non-statutory system used mostly by the District Courts to impose a financial charge on a defendant to be used for a charitable purpose, usually instead of imposing a criminal conviction. Payments made to the court poor box are accounted for by the court office concerned and the accounting procedures are subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Generally, charities are the recipients of poor box contributions but the decision is solely at the discretion of the Judge who is independent in the matter of sentencing, as in other matters concerning the exercise of judicial functions, subject only to the Constitution and the law.

In order to be of assistance to the Deputy, I have had enquiries made and the table provides details of court poor box funds collected by Swords District Court for the period concerned.