A Co Louth man who was sent to prison for not having a €12.70 licence for his dog is seeking an apology from the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, writes Kitty Holland
Mr David Gartlan (40), who lives alone with his dog outside Dundalk, spent four days in Mountjoy Prison and six in Shelton Abbey, Co Wicklow, for not having the licence and then failing to pay a €250 fine.
The fines and court summons were sent to him by post. He is said not to have been contacted in person at any point until he presented himself at his local Garda station.
A family member said yesterday Mr Gartlan was "embarrassed" about the episode and was unwilling to talk about it. However, his sister, Ms Margaret McKeown, describing her brother as "vulnerable", said the justice system had let him down.
"David is not the type of man who would go out and intentionally break the law. He is very quiet and wouldn't hurt a fly."
Mr Joe McGuinness, senior executive officer at the environmental section of Louth County Council, said the section had been running "a bit of a campaign on dog licences over the past few months".
A fixed penalty fine of €30 had been sent to Mr Gartlan "about nine months ago", which had been unpaid. Mr Gartlan was sent reminders and then a summons to appear in court. When he failed to appear he was sent a €250 fine. When this went unpaid a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Local Fine Gael councillor, Mr Michael O'Dowd, said Mr Gartlan, who is unemployed, had presented himself at his local Garda station "as soon as he heard they were looking for him".
"When he got there he offered to pay the fine in instalments but he was taken in a Garda car all the way to Dublin, to Mountjoy Prison. The whole system needs to be looked at in how it deals with vulnerable people from disadvantaged backgrounds. There was no human contact in the lead-up to bringing him to prison."
Both Fine Gael and the Labour Party plan to question the Minister for Justice on the matter next week.
Ms Breda Moynihan-Cronin of the Labour Party decribed the episode as "unreal".
"It doesn't make any sense either on justice grounds or economic grounds, all for the sake of a €12.70 licence. It just shows, isn't it easy for the law to go after the most vulnerable? And that is what it has done here."
A spokeswoman said the Minister for Justice agreed that the law in this area of non-payment of fines was "in need of review to ensure both efficiency in the use of prison places and to provide a more equitable approach to punishment and enforcement".