Jim O'Keeffe
Question:102 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Justice the total amount of fines imposed by the courts and collected in each of the past three years.
Written Answers. - Fines Statistics.
Statistics are not maintained in my Department in a way which would enable me to provide the information sought by the Deputy.
The only information available is the number of fines imposed in the District Court in the legal years up to 31 July, 1992 and the amount of fines collected in all Courts in the calendar years 1990, 1991 and 1992. The figures are as follows:
|
Legal Year |
Number of fines imposed in the District Year |
|
1990 |
177,012 |
|
1991 |
180,279 |
|
1992 |
167,109 |
The amount of fines collected in all Courts in the calendar years 1990, 1991 and 1992 was £7.148 million, £6.342 million and £8.546 million respectively.
Statistics of the number of fines imposed in the Circuit Court are not readily available. It is understood, however, that they would be no more than sixty each year.
Jim O'Keeffe
Question:103 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Justice the number of people jailed for non-payment of fines in each of the past three years.
The total number of persons committed to prison for non-payment of fines for the years 1990, 1991 and 1992 was as follows: 1990, 961; 1991, 769; 1992, 1,342.
Lest the House should be misled in any way by these statistics I must point out that the number of people actually in custody at any time for non-payment of fines is less than 1 per cent of the total prisons population. Many of the persons committed to prison for non-payment of a fine make payment on or very shortly after committal.