Deducting fines from Longford defendants social welfare and income is only way to fix 'broken' system

The calls come on foot of new revelations which shows €361,000 enforced before Longford Courts since October 2018 remains unrecouped.

Chairperson of Co Longford’s Joint Policing Committee (JPC) Cllr Seamus Butler said it was undeniably clear just how a process designed to exact punishment was, in effect favouring the criminal over the wider society at large.

“The system is broke,” he simply put it, adding the only mechanism available to legislative leaders was via imposing “garnashee” orders on those convicted in open court.

“Those orders should be made on any kind of income, including social welfare because the dogs on the street know there is no reason to pay a fine because there is no penalty for it.”

The long serving Fianna Fáil local politician said while Longford was akin to many other parts of the country in having vast sums of court fines still outstanding, the onus was on central government to reform the system in its entirety.

He also said the issue was one which looked set to take a leading role at the next meeting of the county’s JPC early in the new year.

“It’s very disappointing,” he said, when passing comment on the figures released by Courts Service this week.

“It’s something that will have to sort nationally and the solution is by introducing garnashee orders on any income including social welfare.

“There has been a reluctance to do this in the past, but what this is people abusing the system and abusing the system.”

Cllr Butler’s scathing criticism of the State’s incumbent fines mechanism were matched by fellow JPC elected member Cllr Paraic Brady.

“What’s happening is that these people know if they don’t pay their fine, they are going to be brought to the gates of the prison and brought back home in a taxi a couple of hours later.”

Like Cllr Butler, the Drumlish Fine Gael local politician called for fines to be imposed on an individual’s earnings and suggested Department of Justice officials should consider even more draconian sanctions.

“We should be stopping all of this at source and if there are people found to have made and profited from fraudulent insurance claims, it should be taken from there too,” he said.

“These are the people who are getting away scot free and the only way to get a handle on it once and for all is to hit them in the pocket and hit them hard.”