Poor box payments increase again after 2015 decline

Hundreds of charities benefited from the €1,553,609 collected in the District Courts in 2016, according to the Courts Service of Ireland.

The increase in payments partly reverses the stark 40 per cent decline in poor box payments in 2015, when around €1.3 million was collected.

It was widely felt the decline in 2015 heralded the beginning of the end for the poor box, which some in the legal profession would like to scrap. This year’s figures reveal that vast regional discrepancies remain.

More than a quarter of the total (€394,080) was paid in the Tralee area, where the courts are presided over by Judge James O’Connor.

The Criminal Courts of Justice contributed €165,983 to the total collected last year, while the Cork courts contributed €106,815 and the Dublin Metropolitan courts contributed €93,875.

The Courts Service said the poor box is typically used for minor public order offences and “sometimes used for road traffic offences, first time, minor drug offences and offences against property or animals”.

In 2014, the High Court ruled the poor box should not be given as an option to avoid conviction in motoring offences involving penalty points.