Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 5 Jul 2001

Vol. 540 No. 3

Written Answers. - Fixed Penalty Notices.

Richard Bruton

Ceist:

195 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the number of on the spot fines issued for motoring offences, classified by type, for litter offences and for other items for which on the spot fines can be issued in each of the past five years; and the proportion of the face value of fines which were actually collected in respect of each case and each year. [20517/01]

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Molloy)

Fixed penalty notices, commonly known as on the spot fines, are issued in respect of a range of minor offences under the Road Traffic Acts by traffic wardens appointed by a local authority under the Local Authorities (Traffic Wardens) Act, 1975, as amended. Information regarding fixed penalty notices issued in respect of traffic offences by the Gardai may appropriately be sought from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

The following table sets out information in relation to the number of on the spot fines issued in respect of the years 1996 to 1999, based on local authority returns made to my Department.

	TotalTicketsIssued	PaidVoluntarily	SummonsesIssued	Notice Cancelledor no ActionTaken
1996	253,153	141,637	37,714	73,802
1997	246,303	136,156	43,395	66,752
1998	287,484	173,614	34,949	78,921
1999	316,142	182,106	38,558	95,475

Full information in relation to 2000 is not yet available in my Department. The information requested in relation to a breakdown by type of the total on the spot fines issued is being compiled and will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as possible. Statistics on the number of on the spot fines for litter offences issued and paid for each of the past five years are available in the Oireachtas Library. Details of fines issued and paid according to type of offence are not collected by the Department.

The following table sets out information in relation to fines issued for breaches of the provisions of the Control of Dogs Act, 1986, in respect of the years 1996 to 1999 and are the latest published figures available.

Year	Number ofFines Imposed	Value£	Number Paid	Value£	Number ofProsecutions Taken*	Number ofConvictions
1996	7,901	197,525	2,108	52,700	652	296
1997	5,593	139,825	1,379	34,475	299	199
1998	5,028	125,700	726	18,150	270	144
1999	5,311	132,775	1,154	28,850	247	152

*On-the-spot and court summons.

More than 99% of the fines issued under the Act are on the spot fines and more than 85% of these are either for the offence of not having a dog licence or not having a dog under effective control. The low rate of prosecutions for non payment of on the spot fines is due to a large extent to the fact that many local authorities do not pursue payment of the fine if the dog owner takes out a licence within a short period of the issue of the on the spot fine, as the production by the dog owner of a licence in court usually leads to a very low fine. Because of the effect of this in reducing the number of prosecutions taken for non-payment of on the spot fines, it is not possible to give accurate information on how many fines are outstanding or how many of these have been written off as uncollectable.