Over €1.3m in Donegal court fines remains outstanding - Donegal Daily

Over €1.3m in fines imposed by District Courts in Donegal since 2020 remains outstanding.Figures obtained by Donegal Daily confirm that over 4,200 fines handed...

Over €1.3m in fines imposed by District Courts in Donegal since 2020 remains outstanding.

Figures obtained by Donegal Daily confirm that over 4,200 fines handed out by the courts have not been paid.

Almost 50% of the 9,561 fines issued from January 2020-May 2026 have not been paid, the figures released to this website by the Courts Service under the Freedom of Information Act show.

During that period, a total of €2.8 million in fines were imposed across the eight District Courts in Donegal with €1.3 remaining unpaid.

Just last month, Judge Emile Daly, the sitting judge in District Number 1, expressed her frustration with people coming before her over unpaid fines.

She told one man at Letterkenny District Court who had not paid fines arising out of a conviction in 2017: “The court has more to be doing than running around chasing people who haven’t paid their fines.”

In the last six years, over €1.4m in fines have been issued at Letterkenny District Court with almost €730,000 of that still owed.

Of the €334,107.56 in fines handed out at Buncrana District Court, just €155,489.62 has been recouped while at Ballyshannon District Court, €326,415.16 in fines were imposed with €173,762.68 of that not yet paid.

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There are a total of 2,299 fines unresolved at Letterkenny District Court, with 632 at Buncrana and 470 at Ballyshannon District Court.

At Donegal District Court, there are 306 fines imposed in that period not yet paid with just €152,766.76 of the €269,446.48 handed down having been collected.

There are eight District Courts in Donegal: Ballyshannon, Buncrana, Carndonagh, Donegal, Dungloe, Falcarragh, Letterkenny and Glenties.

At Donegal District Court, there are 306 fines unpaid, 265 at Carndonagh District Court, 87 at Dungloe District Court, 78 at Falcarragh District Court and 65 at Glenties District Court.

It is in Letterkenny where the greatest chunk of the figure lies.

The Letterkenny District Court issues a total of €1,445,770.32 across 4,991 fines since January 2020. Of that, there has been €602,961.72 paid with some 2,299 fines still unresolved - accounting for a total of €602,961.72.

In total €151,306.21 was deemed unrecoverable during the same period.

The Courts Service said this included cases where a fine was imposed but a subsequent enforcement sanction, such as community service or imprisonment, meant the fine was no longer collectible.

It also included cases where a court deemed a fine uncollectible, for example where a defendant had died, or in cases where a court accepted a lesser amount as payment in full.

Fines imposed for criminal offences or statutory breaches are collected by the Courts Service and paid into the central Exchequer to support public services and state finances.