John Deasy
Question:545. Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the estimated number of persons imprisoned in Ireland for non-payment of court fines in each of the years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. [55254/13]
View answerDáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 January 2014
545. Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the estimated number of persons imprisoned in Ireland for non-payment of court fines in each of the years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. [55254/13]
View answerA breakdown of the number of persons imprisoned solely for non-payment of fines for each of the years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 is set out in the following table.
Year |
Number of Persons |
2008 |
2,343 |
2009 |
4,350 |
2010 |
5,995 |
2011 |
6,727 |
2012 |
7,476 |
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 14 January, 2014, 6 people, 0.15 percent, out of a prison population of 3,973 in custody that day fell into this category.