I thank you for the opportunity to raise this matter. While it may seem that a matter involving a mere 60 pence is not worth having the House sit so late for in the evening, the facts surrounding this affair should be investigated further so that some lessons might be learned from it. I thank the Minister of State for taking the time to come and listen to what I have to say.
It is supposed to be a fundamental principle of our legal system that the punishment would fit the crime. If ever there was a case of the punishment failing to do so it must surely have been that of the 17 year old girl from my constituency who was sentenced to seven days imprisonment for allegedly evading a DART fare of 60p and who spent two days in Mountjoy Prison before the Minister intervened to secure the release.
Fare evasion is an unacceptable and anti-social activity which needs to be discouraged. I am also aware that the young girl was alleged to have committed a similar offence previously. However, even allowing for that, a seven day sentence was totally disproportionate for an offence involving 60p. Such sentencing taken in conjunction with the inconsistency in sentencing policy must simply undermine public confidence in the courts system.
I have in the past drawn public attention to cases where courts have treated with incredible leniency, people convicted on drunk driving offences which have led to deaths of totally innocent people. No later than 26 February last, I referred to two specific cases where people convicted under these circumstances had not received custodial sentences and where there had not been any suggestion of sentencing.
Are we now to take it that our courts consider the evasion of a fare worth 60p to be a more serious offence than drunk driving leading to death? We can also compare the treatment of this girl with the treatment of major tax evaders many of whom have been caught evading tax of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Has anyone ever gone to jail in this country — even for two days — for evading tax? Not at all.
We read in the newspapers last week about how Mr. Goodman's organisation had apparently been able to come to an arrangement with the Revenue Commissioners to write off £4 million of an outstanding tax bill of £8 million. This case, if anything, would certainly prove that there is one law for the rich and another for everyone else in this country.
Had this young girl been obliged to serve her full sentence, the cost to the taxpayer of keeping her in jail for a week would have been more than £600, all for 60p. I do not believe that a custodial sentence for such a trivial amount could ever be justified especially where there were non-custodial alternatives available to the court. Why was the girl not considered for supervision under the juvenile liaison officers scheme or some other such supervisory scheme? Why did the court not consider making a community service order which would have required the girl to do some community work such as removing graffiti, or cleaning up the railway station in her area?
This case emphasises once again the need for some sort of guidelines for our courts when imposing sentences. I appeal to the Minister to enter into negotiations with the appropriate judicial authorities to see that they are brought in as soon as possible. In addition to the judicial considerations and that of the administration of justice generally, there is another problem underlying the difficulties here, that has to do with the proper development of the DART service on the north side of Dublin city. I appreciate that this is not directly a matter for the Minister of State concerned here but I ask him to bring back to his colleague in Government the facts of this problem which I raised with him in the House previously and where he has indicated that no funds are available.
It is a remarkable feature of the service on the north side of the city that after 9 p.m. the railway stations are abandoned along this stretch of the line and left unmanned. People can enter and leave without being required to pay a fare. That was a factor in these cases. So long as the north side stations are not properly developed and staffed and as long as the courts go on with what seems to be a lurch and stop attitude to dealing with offenders who come before them, our Minister will be required on another occasion to spring young people, if not adults, from our prisons. Therefore, I hope action will be taken in this area.
