Government can now take unpaid fines from your wages or payments

A new legal system to allow unpaid fines to be taken from people’s earnings or State payments has come into effect this week.

The Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald, on Monday commenced the Fines (Payment and Recovery) Act 2014.

It means if you don’t pay a fine, you won’t go to prison any more – except as an absolute last resort.

However, fines can be taken from your earnings in instalments - and the court may appoint a receiver to recover an unpaid fine.

If a fine remains unpaid, the court can impose a community service order – and if that’s not completed, only then can a term of imprisonment be applied.

The Minister stated: “The Act provides an appropriate response to the problems of the refusal or failure of some people to pay fines and the inappropriateness of imprisonment as the automatic response where this happens. We now have a system that is logical and proportionate”.

The Minister added: “I am confident that with the changes to the fines system that will flow from the implementation of the Act, the number of persons imprisoned for the non-payment of fines in the future will be greatly reduced.” Minister Fitzgerald acknowledged the scale of the necessary changes to IT and administrative systems including tendering requirements in implementing the Act and the significant challenge that this posed.