Fines Data

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 February 2021

Wednesday, 10 February 2021

Ceisteanna (684, 685, 686)

Noel Grealish

Ceist:

684. Deputy Noel Grealish asked the Minister for Justice the number of persons who failed to pay fines imposed by the courts since the commencement of the Fines (Payment and Recovery) Act 2014; the number that had an attachment order, a recovery order or community service order made against them as a result; the number of persons imprisoned for failure to pay such fines by year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7394/21]

Noel Grealish

Ceist:

685. Deputy Noel Grealish asked the Minister for Justice the value and number of unpaid fines in each of the years 2013 to 2020; the value and number of fines imposed by the courts in each of the years; the steps being taken to recover unpaid fines; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7395/21]

Noel Grealish

Ceist:

686. Deputy Noel Grealish asked the Minister for Justice the offence categories in respect of which fines were imposed by the courts in each of the years 2016 to 2020; the offence categories in respect of which fines were imposed but were not paid in the same period by the number and value in each case; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7396/21]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Justice

I propose to take Questions Nos. 684 to 686, inclusive, together.

I have requested the figures sought by the Deputy from the Courts Service and I will write to the Deputy once the information has been submitted, collated and verified.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51

I refer to Parliamentary Questions 684, 685 and 686 of 10 February 2021. As all questions relate to the operation of the Fines (Payment and Recovery) Act 2014 I trust a single response, providing insofar as is possible the information requested, will suffice. I hope you will accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your questions, there was a significant amount of information to be collated and verified.

While your questions were statistical in nature, I feel it is important to outline the current fines process which is governed by the Act, to provide better context to the statistical data.

Explanatory note on the court fines system

As you will be aware, the Fines (Payment and Recovery) Act 2014 (the Act) came into force on 11 January 2016. It provides for alternative orders to imprisonment in the event that a court imposed fine is not paid. The Act was introduced to help address the high level of short-term prison sentences for the non-payment of court imposed fines. In 2015, prior to commencement of the Act, there were 9,883 committals to prison for non-payment of fines.[1] By 2019 this had fallen to only 861;[2] a reduction of 91%.

Fines are generally imposed in the District Court, for minor offences, however a small number of fines are also imposed by the higher courts. Once imposed, the Courts Service starts a process of communicating with the person in order to recover the fine. This process has a number of stages that are followed in order to give the person every opportunity to pay the fine.

The Court Service issues a number of communications to the person concerned to try and recover the sum owed and avoid the matter progressing. Such communications include the initial fines notice, a reminder where necessary, an instalment reminder (in applicable cases), and a warning notice (shortly after the fine has lapsed into default). In the event the fine still remains in default at that stage, the Courts Service will then issue an enforcement notice, under section 7(4) of the Act. This requires the person to return to court so that the default can be managed. A document instructing the fined person how to pay is enclosed with these notices in order to provide another opportunity for the person to pay the fine before returning to Court.

At an enforcement hearing, a judge can decide to use one of the new sanctions introduced by the Act as an alternative to imprisonment in the event of fine default. These sanctions include an attachment of earnings order (the debt is recovered from the defaulter’s salary), a recovery order (seizure of property if the fine is greater than €500), or the debt can be discharged via a community service order. If, at an enforcement hearing, the court is not satisfied with matters relating to these alternative orders then it is open to the Judge to discharge the fine by way of an imprisonment order but it is of course intended that this would be used as a measure of last resort.

It should be noted that it remains open to the person to pay the fine at any stage of the proceedings. This is again with a view to providing every opportunity to them to avoid the need for an alternative sanction and ultimately to prevent matters progressing to the point of an imprisonment order being imposed.

The Act stipulates that the alternative orders can only be made once the defaulter appears at their enforcement hearing. In the event of non-attendance – and if satisfied that the original notice was served – a court may decide to adjourn the hearing to a new date, or issue a warrant for the arrest of the person. The result of non-attendance at court has led to a number of hearings being adjourned and a marked increase in the issuance of fine enforcement bench warrants; as noted by my predecessor. [3]

As a consequence, fine recovery can become a drawn-out process with fines imposed in more recent periods appearing as though they remain unpaid when compared with fines imposed in historic periods. This is because of the time that is allowed for people to make payments which makes comparing recovery rates across a time series problematic.

To quantify this, an analysis of fines data has shown that of fines imposed in 2014 an overall proportion of approximately 57% were recovered. A certain proportion of the remainder would then have been discharged by way of imprisonment orders.

For fines imposed in 2016, there was a slightly reduced overall rate of 52%. An additional 2% were discharged by way of imprisonment orders.[4] A further 18% of fines were outstanding at the date of analysis; most of which had an open bench warrant arising from non-attendance at an enforcement hearing. These fines are still recoverable, and in many instances will result in repayment once warrants are successfully executed. Finally, the remaining 26% of fines were ultimately deemed uncollectable, mainly due to the case being struck-out at court.

The rate of recovery presented for more recent years will increase as enforcement actions come to pass which will, in a number of cases, result in payment. This was borne out in the data for fines imposed in 2019; the most recent full year at the time of analysis. Unfortunately, the data also indicated a slippage in the proportion of fines paid by the court specified date, which fell to 25%. However, as noted above the court specified date is not the end point for engagement with the person in order to recover the unpaid fine. While at present there has been a lower rate of recovery for 2019 (approximately 35% for fines imposed in that year), table 4 below shows that a significant proportion of fines remain collectable and efforts to recover those will continue. Once these fines are enforced, it is expected a number of defaulters will pay their fines rather than proceed through the enforcement process, thus increasing the rate to levels similar to previous years.

Of course, all debt systems have a degree of attrition and while the proportion of fines paid in 2016 (52%) is somewhat comparable to other jurisdictions,[5] there is considerable room for improvement. A High Level Group was established by my predecessor, Charlie Flanagan tasked with looking at how to improve the operation of the fines system. It includes representatives from my Department, the Courts Service, the Office of the Attorney General, An Garda Síochána, the DPP, the Irish Prison Service and the Probation Service.

My Departmental representatives have been exploring potential solutions, many of which have been introduced in other jurisdictions, such as Scotland and Northern Ireland, where similar difficulties had previously arisen. In both instances reform took a number of years before improvements were seen. A second review into the new Northern Irish fine collection and enforcement regime – introduced by the Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 – has recently been published by the Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJI).[6] Both of these reviews will provide essential learning for direction of reform in Ireland, which I expect will require significant legislative changes.

I trust this explanatory note provides you with some context for the fines system and will assist in enabling you to analyse the statistical data supplied by the Court Service in response to your questions of 10 February.

Question 684 of 10 February 2021 | 7394/21

“…asked the Minister for Justice the number of persons who failed to pay fines imposed by the courts since the commencement of the Fines (Payment and Recovery) Act 2014; the number that had an attachment order, a recovery order or community service order made against them as a result; the number of persons imprisoned for failure to pay such fines by year; and if she will make a statement on the matter.”

I am informed by the Courts Service that, as at 10 February 2021, there are a total of 112,889 persons with outstanding fines imposed between commencement of the Act and 31 December 2020:

Year of imposition	Persons
Year of imposition	Persons
2016 (11 Jan – 31 Dec)	8,517
2017	24,036
2018	30,385
2019	29,600
2020	20,361

The significant increase, comparing 2016 to other years, relates to the problems highlighted in the explanatory note, i.e. the reduction in enforcement hearings arising from significant non-attendance from defaulters.

In relation to the number of persons receiving alternative orders, the Court Service have supplied the following data.

Order				Year of order
2017	2018	2019	2020
Order				Year of order
Attachment of Earnings	-	13	26	8
Community Service	4	280	589	243
Recovery	1	8	31	32
Imprisonment[7]	3	739	396	139

Again, the explanatory note outlines the reasons as to why the number of orders made has been low. As noted, the Department is considering the requirement that the defaulter appear at court, in-person, before an order can be made.

Question 685 of 10 February 2021 | 7395/21

In question 685 of 10 February you :

“… asked the Minister for Justice the value and number of unpaid fines in each of the years 2013 to 2020; the value and number of fines imposed by the courts in each of the years; the steps being taken to recover unpaid fines; and if she will make a statement on the matter.”

The Courts Service have provided the following data, I trust the explanatory note provides sufficient information on the steps taken to recover fines.

Year		Volume		Value
Imposed	Due[8]	Imposed	Due
Year		Volume		Value
2013	69,444	6,492	€21,075,888.67	€2,058,254.11
2014	73,762	7,080	€22,527,683.78	€2,416,632.74
2015	70,659	11,334	€22,421,690.98	€4,238,665.63
2016	67,259	12,385	€21,598,824.36	€5,590,152.04
2017	68,293	31,733	€21,980,331.78	€11,302,520.98
2018	66,698	41,434	€20,901,251.79	€13,492,540.55
2019	63,191	40,864	€21,248,808.43	€14,492,568.53
2020	37,548	27,151	€11,723,048.03	€8,855,830.86

Question 686 of 10 February 2021 | 7396/21

“…asked the Minister for Justice the offence categories in respect of which fines were imposed by the courts in each of the years 2016 to 2020; the offence categories in respect of which fines were imposed but were not paid in the same period by the number and value in each case; and if she will make a statement on the matter.”

The Court Service have noted that it was not possible to produce data on fines “imposed but were not paid in the same period”. Instead they have provided an annual breakdown of the volume of fines, the value imposed and the value subsequently recovered – as at 9 Feb 2021 – by offence category:

Table 1: Fines imposed 11 January – 31st December 2016

Fine Status	Complaint Category	No of Fines Imposed	Value of Fines Imposed	Value of Fines Recovered
Fine Status	Complaint Category	No of Fines Imposed	Value of Fines Imposed	Value of Fines Recovered
Appeal/JR Pending	Assault	4	€3,500.00	€0.00
Dangerous Driving	3	€3,500.00	€0.00
Drink Driving	2	€1,350.00	€0.00
Other	14	€21,039.16	€0.00
Public Order	6	€2,150.00	€0.00
Road Traffic	33	€14,538.00	€0.00
Television Licence	1	€350.00	€0.00
Appeal/JR Pending Total	63	€46,427.16	€0.00
Due	Assault	36	€10,015.00	€0.00
Criminal Damage	46	€13,961.00	€0.00
Dangerous Driving	66	€27,949.00	€0.00
Domestic Violence	9	€3,350.00	€0.00
Drink Driving	199	€70,245.00	€0.00
Drugs	372	€91,546.00	€0.00
Firearms/Offensive Weapons	28	€5,947.00	€0.00
Liquor	6	€2,000.00	€0.00
Other	1,638	€2,532,486.69	€0.00
Public Order	605	€109,691.00	€0.00
Road Traffic	7,526	€2,109,564.06	€243.00
Sexual Offences	3	€675.00	€0.00
Television Licence	835	€265,752.52	€0.00
Theft	377	€82,378.00	€0.00
Due Total	11,746	€5,325,560.27	€243.00
Paid	Assault	212	€80,763.60	€80,763.60
Criminal Damage	130	€31,447.00	€31,447.00
Dangerous Driving	260	€87,457.50	€87,457.50
Domestic Violence	41	€10,405.00	€10,405.00
Drink Driving	1,945	€617,097.00	€617,097.00
Drugs	1,071	€246,355.00	€246,305.00
Firearms/Offensive Weapons	89	€23,348.00	€23,348.00
Liquor	155	€55,485.00	€55,485.00
Other	2,209	€2,075,897.50	€2,075,897.50
Public Order	1,736	€341,937.00	€341,712.00
Road Traffic	23,967	€5,054,773.78	€5,054,123.78
Sexual Offences	12	€6,200.00	€6,200.00
Television Licence	1,426	€355,061.11	€354,911.11
Theft	726	€164,085.00	€163,935.00
Paid Total	33,979	€9,150,312.49	€9,149,087.49
Part Paid	Criminal Damage	1	€250.00	€125.00
Dangerous Driving	2	€1,000.00	€300.00
Drink Driving	9	€3,450.00	€1,270.00
Drugs	7	€2,800.00	€1,120.00
Liquor	1	€300.00	€250.00
Other	33	€48,061.01	€17,526.25
Public Order	10	€2,550.00	€829.00
Road Traffic	214	€71,912.00	€25,768.66
Television Licence	31	€10,036.60	€2,878.03
Theft	4	€1,200.00	€825.00
Part Paid Total	312	€141,559.61	€50,891.94
Refundable	Assault	3	€1,250.00	€1,250.00
Criminal Damage	1	€101.00	€101.00
Dangerous Driving	4	€1,190.00	€1,190.00
Drink Driving	8	€2,600.00	€2,600.00
Drugs	7	€1,715.00	€1,040.00
Firearms/Offensive Weapons	1	€150.00	€150.00
Liquor	1	€150.00	€150.00
Other	17	€24,310.00	€24,310.00
Public Order	1	€100.00	€100.00
Road Traffic	328	€57,096.00	€53,588.87
Television Licence	1	€300.00	€52.50
Theft	1	€300.00	€50.00
Refundable Total	373	€89,262.00	€84,582.37
Uncollectable	Assault	85	€26,113.00	€0.00
Criminal Damage	126	€33,159.78	€450.00
Dangerous Driving	129	€35,615.00	€140.00
Domestic Violence	34	€7,505.00	€0.00
Drink Driving	398	€145,720.00	€3,125.00
Drugs	703	€142,772.00	€1,735.00
Firearms/Offensive Weapons	64	€14,391.00	€250.00
Liquor	19	€5,775.00	€0.00
Other	1,763	€1,933,993.45	€5,828.00
Public Order	2,024	€377,052.00	€5,377.50
Road Traffic	11,586	€3,107,125.10	€35,919.75
Sexual Offences	1	€250.00	€0.00
Television Licence	1,536	€471,736.50	€4,330.62
Theft	951	€183,141.00	€2,600.00
Total uncollectable	19,419	€6,484,348.83	€59,755.87
	Grand total	65,892	€21,237,470.36	€9,344,560.67

Tab le 2: FFines imposed in 2017

Status of Fines	Complaint Category	No of Fines Imposed	Value of Fines Imposed	Value of Fines Recovered
Status of Fines	Complaint Category	No of Fines Imposed	Value of Fines Imposed	Value of Fines Recovered
Appeal/JR Pending	Assault	5	€2,300.00	€0.00
Dangerous Driving	6	€4,250.00	€0.00
Drink Driving	14	€8,225.00	€0.00
Drugs	1	€300.00	€0.00
Other	21	€49,688.10	€0.00
Public Order	10	€4,650.00	€0.00
Road Traffic	43	€13,540.00	€850.00
Total	100	€82,953.10	€850.00
Due	Assault	98	€34,761.00	€0.00
	Criminal Damage	115	€29,807.00	€0.00
	Dangerous Driving	184	€70,022.00	€0.00
	Domestic Violence	38	€9,935.00	€0.00
	Drink Driving	720	€245,678.00	€0.00
	Drugs	1,224	€293,944.00	€0.00
	Firearms/Offensive Weapons	88	€20,559.00	€0.00
	Liquor	26	€10,000.00	€0.00
	Other	2,908	€3,572,873.12	€0.00
	Public Order	2,251	€423,503.00	€0.00
	Road Traffic	19,251	€5,089,795.31	€80.00
	Sexual Offences	6	€1,324.00	€0.00
	Television Licence	2,999	€940,590.83	€0.00
	Theft	1,022	€202,920.85	€0.00
	Total	30,930	€10,945,713.11	€80.00
Paid	Assault	223	€90,051.00	€90,051.00
	Criminal Damage	115	€30,368.00	€30,368.00
	Dangerous Driving	252	€96,690.00	€96,690.00
	Domestic Violence	37	€8,770.00	€8,770.00
	Drink Driving	2,142	€711,824.60	€711,824.60
	Drugs	1,124	€276,295.00	€276,195.00
	Firearms/Offensive Weapons	68	€16,099.00	€16,099.00
	Liquor	154	€54,861.99	€54,861.99
	Other	1,914	€1,964,610.14	€1,964,215.40
	Public Order	1,462	€290,475.00	€290,475.00
	Road Traffic	20,321	€4,562,502.12	€4,562,302.12
	Sexual Offences	9	€5,450.00	€5,450.00
	Television Licence	1,173	€285,575.31	€285,575.31
	Theft	610	€139,395.42	€139,395.42
	Total	29,604	€8,532,967.58	€8,532,272.84
Part Paid