BEING TAKEN to Mountjoy Prison for failing to buy a €12.70 dog licence was “absolutely frightening and terrifying”, says Dundalk man Dominic McKevitt.
Mr McKevitt was one of the more than 10,000 people committed to prison for failure to pay a court fine in 2009 and 2010. The figures emerged in the annual report of the Irish Prison Service’s annual report.
In 2009 he had just moved into a new estate in Dundalk when a neighbour working with the Louth Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals offered him a small rescue dog, a shih tzu.
He had just come through a legal separation and having lost his house and still paying high legal bills, he welcomed the bit of company, he says.
“Because it was a new estate a lot of the post wasn’t getting delivered. I didn’t get the notice from the council telling me to get a dog licence and then I didn’t get the court summons. The first I heard about it was when a friend said they had seen my name in the paper for being fined €655 for having no dog licence. I was totally flabbergasted.
“I contacted the council about my case but didn’t get any satisfaction. I contacted my solicitor who explained to me that the fine is in two parts – €300 for the fine and €355 for expenses and if I engaged him to appeal he probably get the fine reduced to €150 but the expenses would remain and would be doubled with the appeal on top of his fee. So I couldn’t do that.”
He contacted the Ombudsman but before that route yielded results a garda came to arrest him. “He was embarrassed but he brought me up to the barracks. Then two gardaí were assigned to bring me up to Dublin. They said there was no way I’d be taken in, but when we got there the warden was adamant I was going in for the 21 days’.
“It was absolutely frightening and terrifying going in. The place is antiquated. And the stench – it was horrific. I was brought to a second holding area. About an hour later another officer told him if he paid €355 he could go home.
“I had it on me because it was part of my grant money for college. They let me out and I hadn’t a clue where I was. Luckily I had €7 on me for the ticket home.”
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said the Fines Act 2010 was being started on a phased basis.
Provisions already in operation include capacity to pay measures.
“There is an obligation on the court to take account of the person’s financial circumstances before a fine, if any, is imposed.”
