Almost half of fines enforcement cases struck out in Donegal - Donegal Daily

Almost half of the fines enforcement cases recorded in the District Courts across Donegal since 2020 have been struck out.In that time, nearly 3,000 enforcement...

Almost half of the fines enforcement cases recorded in the District Courts across Donegal since 2020 have been struck out.

In that time, nearly 3,000 enforcement orders were made in Donegal but figures obtained by Donegal Daily show that just over one in five were actually paid.

Last week, Donegal Daily revealed that over €1.3m in fines imposed by the District Courts in Donegal since 2020 is still outstanding.

An enforcement comes into play when a fine has not been paid and the matter is brought back before the Court for enforcement.

From January 2020 to May of this year, there were 2,966 enforcement orders recorded across Donegal’s eight District Courts.

Of those, just 640 were paid while a total of 1,278, 43% of those issued, resulted in a strike out.

There were 847 bench warrants issued - covering 28.9% of the number of enforcements - while 57 cases resulted in imprisonment (1.9%) and a further 56 ended with a community service order.

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The Courts Service, in figures released under the Freedom of Information Act, cautions that an enforcement could have been issued in one year but disposed of in a later year, or could still be pending a court outcome.

Letterkenny District Court accounted for the latest number of enforcement orders across the eight District Courts in Donegal.

There were 1,740 issued in Letterkenny, with 797 resulting in a strike out and 640 marked as paid.

There were 474 bench warrants issued at Letterkenny District Court, with a further 47 resulting in imprisonment, 38 in community service orders, and 348 were paid on enforcement.

There were 350 enforcement orders issued at Ballyshannon District Court, with just 65 of those paid and 160 struck out, while there were 333 enforcement orders made at Buncrana District Court, where 79 were paid and 125 were struck out.

There were 216 issued at Donegal District Court with 76 struck out and 55 paid; 123 were issued before Carndonagh District Court, where 38 resulted in a strike out and 33 were paid; Dungloe District Court had 94 issued, 37 struck out and 34 paid; 64 were issued at Falcarragh District Court, of which 23 were struck out and 14 were paid; while there were 22 strike outs and 12 paid from the 46 issued at Glenties District Court.