A Way to save money...other than hitting our wages

Com1186

As a member of AGS I must admit that we had it good during the boom period and that we must do our bit to help the country during the bad times. However I feel that what upsets me most about the levy’s and possible wage cuts is the extreme waste of money in other areas...the worst I feel is fines issued in courts that are not paid.

When a person gets a fine in court a large percentage do not pay the fine.
The court service then issues penal warrants for the Gardai to execute;
The guard then tracks the person down;
Most of the time they will not pay and are lodged into prison.
The prisons are currently at max capacity;
The person is released after an hour or two and
his/her punishment (Fine) for the crime he committed is done.

A lot of time effort is wasted in the Court Service / Gardai and Prison Service

What I think could be done is this: When a person is found guilty for an offence in a court, he/she receives a fine. He/she has x amount of time to pay the fine. That person is either (A) Employed or (B) Unemployed.
If they dont pay the fine THEN......

(A) The employed person; deduct his/her tax credits proportional to the fine issued in court. That person is then taxed more and the government recoups the fine in tax revenue.

(B) The unemployed person; He/She is either claiming dole / disability / job seekers allowance. Deduct it from their payments (if a large fine then spread it out of a number of weeks / months) the fine is paid by the government not giving out the money that person should have paid in the first place……

I feel this would bring money in and save a lot of money from going out of the government's coffers. Plus I bet it would deter people from committing crimes that they are normally fined for and don’t pay (public order / road traffic) It’s amazing how people don’t like it when the government hit’s their pockets.

I think that in this forum, by coming together and looking for cost saving measures is more constructive than what is going on in this forum at the moment, the ES workers giving out about getting hit and the private sector posters who feel aggrieved of what we have; (which both side have a right to give out about)

What do other forum user think?

FGR

Agreed.

However can you imagine the human rights campaigners re: losing dole? They'd conveniently forget the reason why the person was getting less social welfare to begin with..

Com1186

ForegoneReality wrote: »

Agreed.

However can you imagine the human rights campaigners re: losing dole? They'd conveniently forget the reason why the person was getting less social welfare to begin with..

They wouldnt be losing money.....as a result of something they did they would not recieve as much money from the govt. that they could have if they didnt break the law in the first place!

TheNog

At court have all summons and charges grouped together per Garda. I dont know how many times I have sat in court for hours on end waiting for my cases to come up from page 1 of the court list to page 8. Would cut down on OT.

Also for the love of God do something with PULSE. Its so slow right now that I spent 20mins at one traffic stop just to find out the driver was disqualified. The driver got so tired of waiting around that he told me. It took me another 3-4 minutes to confirm it.

Zambia

First up yes i like the idea, along with the idea of a concerted effort to cut wastefull spending to minimise wage cuts.

First up consider the following in relation to road traffic
1: Confiscation of Vehicles for no road tax over 15 days out of date.

2: Recovery of Vehicle has a adequate cost associated.

3: Vehicles not recovered after 30 days are auctioned. All proceeds to state.

4: You cannot tax your or any vehicle if any fines are outstanding against you.

5: You cannot renew your licence if fines are outstanding against you.

6: Unpaid Debts of 100 units result in loss of licence

In essence AGS should have no role in the collection of Traffic monies.

I will try and think of something for non traffic fines.

Sadly though I can not imagine that fines alone would but much of a dent in the hole.

dredre

Super idea!

Why don't you submit it to http://www.ideascampaign.ie/? The govt announced a few today that had been sent in by members of the public. It's a start and as Tesco say... 'every little helps'!

Com1186

dredre wrote: »

Super idea!

Why don't you submit it to http://www.ideascampaign.ie/? The govt announced a few today that had been sent in by members of the public. It's a start and as Tesco say... 'every little helps'!

Done.. thanks..... i think if you set this system up you would save thousands of man hours...and hundreds and thousands of euros and a significate drop incrime after a while!

ah lads not the ideas campaign - send those ideas to people in Government
here is what i have against the ideas campaign:
http://www.thepropertypin.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=19526&start=15

In submitting an idea you also agree to its publication in any form by The Ideas Campaign. By submitting the idea you are thereby granting The Ideas Campaign the perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right to use, reproduce, copy, modify, edit, translate, publish, display, post, transmit, distribute, sell or part company with your submitted idea without any compensation to you, anonymously or in the aggregate, for internal or external purposes, alone or as part of other works in any form, media or technology.

The Ideas Campaign reserves the right without notice and for any reason not to respond to or use ideas or comments submitted to The Ideas Campaign. Visitors who do not give accurate email addresses or complete the relevant forms fully will not have submissions considered.

Here is a list of the people who are actually running the country and not trying to steal ideas for profit:

http://www.thepropertypin.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14604&hilit=blitzkrieg

Get your ideas out in letters to newspapers texts to radio stations also.

I like your ideas about the fines and Nogs idea about court dates. Proper management of this sort of thing gives better efficiency and better efficiency gives better bang for your buck.

silverharp

how about campaigning to have our drugs laws relaxed. In purely logical terms it makes no sense criminalizing people for being addicted to the "wrong" drug. As a taxpayer I could care less what people do behind closed doors and stupidly taking drugs falls in that category. It might free up alot of court time and prison cells for the truely deserving.

johnnyskeleton

TheNog wrote: »

At court have all summons and charges grouped together per Garda. I dont know how many times I have sat in court for hours on end waiting for my cases to come up from page 1 of the court list to page 8. Would cut down on OT.

Yes, also have DPPs directions, statements, legal aid and any other issues sorted out before the case comes into court so that cases are not constantly adjourned. For indictable offences where the accused is on bail, there is no need for the case to go into the district court at all - simply serve the book of evidence on them when its ready, together with a circuit court date and any other issues sorted out in advance.

Also, going back to the 10.30, 12 and 2 o'clock lists would save a lot of garda time instead of everyone coming into a packed court at 10.30.

FGR

It's been mentioned before but - Sec 4/30 detentions. It would be ideal to have the caution amended so that there is no need for two members to be taken up in the interview - one solely being there to write down the transcript.

Less writing; less time in interview room = more time on street/less need for OT following serious arrest.

Trojan911

Com1186 wrote: »

What do other forum user think?

Yep, I could run with that. The only possible problem I could see is the "Unemployed" would whinge in court that they have no money to spare. Thus driving up further crime to suplement their fines.

Great idea otherwise.....

Zambia

why doesnt the offender get charged the Gardas OT bill for appearing in court for them.

Then both accused and state have an incentive to prevent time wastage.