The Minister for Justice is considering reform of the court poor box system following advice received from the Attorney General.

Mr O'Donoghue said the operation of this practice was "a cause of concern to me", as statistics from his Department showed that offenders paid a total of just over £375,000 to district court poor boxes last year.

Of the £375,504.68 - paid into 37 of the 45 district courts listed - Portlaoise had the highest payment, with £73,176.75. It was a larger amount than the Dublin Metropolitan area, which has a higher population and where £69,020.82 was paid into the box.

Carlow District Court was third in the league of payments with £55,564 paid. Limerick was fourth with a substantially lower payment of £16,387, followed by Thurles at £14,760 and Nenagh with £14,420.65. The Minister told Mr Pat Upton (Lab, Dublin South Central) in a written reply that he had formally requested the advice of the Attorney General and this was now being "fully reviewed" by the Department. "Any proposals which I may have, following the review, will be brought before the Government in the usual way," Mr O'Donoghue said. The poor box system pre-dated the foundation of the State and "it is not a practice specifically regulated for in legislation".

Under the system, judges can order that contributions be paid to the poor box or directly to a named charity rather than convicting and fining a defendant.

The funds are paid out to charities at the direction of the judge, the Minister said. The use of the poor box has been criticised in the past on the grounds that those with money could escape convictions. Eight district courts had no payments to the poor box. They were Cavan, Derrynea, Co Galway, Donegal, Ennis, Letterkenny, Mallow, Tralee and Trim.