asked the Minister for Justice if he has received a petition from a person (details supplied) in County Meath who was fined £7 for allegedly misparking a car which he claims neither to have owned or parked and who is now facing a jail sentence for an offence of which he would therefore appear to be guiltless; if so, if he will state the outcome of the petition; and, if he has not received such a petition, if he will favourably consider one.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Parking of Car.
33.
I have received a petition and the matter is being investigated. I shall communicate with the Deputy when my inquiries are complete.
How long does the Minister expect the investigation to take? Is there any fear that this man will be sent to jail while the investigation is going on?
The execution of the warrant has been postponed in accordance with normal practice. I expect to be in a position to deal with it next week.
How did this man get his summons when he did not, in fact, own the car or have the car parked there?
It would appear from inquiries so far made that there was an error with regard to the number of the car. The number put down in the proceedings was not the number of the petitioner's car, which was, in fact, wrongly parked.
Will the Minister see that mistakes of this nature do not arise again, because this mistake has given the family concerned a lot of anxiety.
I have no doubt that the petitioner has been caused anxiety by the mistake and the mistake is regretted. As I say, the petitioner wrongly parked his car but, unfortunately, the wrong number was put on the proceedings.
Does this not open a pretty wide question whereby it is possible to find oneself in jail when one is not guilty of an offence, just because of some mistake being made? Does that not alarm the Minister?
It is not possible for a person to find himself in jail by reason of a mistake. A mistake was made in this case, but nobody went to jail, nor is there any likelihood of anyone going to jail, because there are several remedies available to a person who might be the victim of an administrative error such as this.
In fact, the person was told that he would be brought to jail next week if he did not pay.
The position is that a petition has been lodged on behalf of the defendant and that had the effect of staying the proceedings, and there was no question of him going to jail. In any event, I was aware of the matter from petitions by Deputies Tully and Bruton.
The remaining questions will appear on next Tuesday's Order Paper.