A JUDGMENT overturning the proposed jailing of a woman for non-payment of a debt highlights that the State must amend outdated laws governing the area, the director general of the Free Legal Advice Centres has said.
Noeline Blackwell said the current system, where a debtor without funds or ability to pay a debt can be imprisoned, was wrong and did not accord with fairness or human rights.
“A system which was last changed in 1940 is entirely inadequate to deal with the realities of modern-day credit,” she said.
Ms Blackwell said the ruling was a vindication of the constitutional and human rights of Caroline McCann. “The prison system and the courts system are being used in the course of civil debt collection process, which means people end up in jail without ever committing even the smallest of offences,” she said.
She added that 276 people were sent to jail for an average of 27 days each last year for failing to pay debts, and that this did not accord with Irish constitutional guarantees of fair procedure.
“There was a feeling that prison was a good thing because it forced people to pay their debts, but it doesn’t,” she said.
In a statement, Ms McCann said the judgment meant she “won’t be taken away from her children” and that she hoped the ruling would help others in a similar situation.
