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Section 110 provides:
1) Where a court orders a child to paya fine, costs or compensation and the child is
in default-
(a) the court shall not order that the child be detained in anycase where, if
the child were a person of full age and capacity, he or she would be
liable to be committed to prison, and
(b) in lieu of such an order, the court may make one or more than one of
the followingorders:
(i) in the case of a fine, an order reducing its amount,
(ii) an order allowing time, or further time, for payment of a fine, costs
or compensation,
(iii) an order imposing a community sanction appropriate to the age of
the child.
Accordingly, communityservice orders can nowbe made where there is a findingthat a sixteen
or seventeen year old is in default in payment of a fine. It couldbe arguedthat the
sanction for non-payment of fines byadults is a custodial sentence andaccordinglythe use
of a communityservice order in lieu of a fine or as a penaltyfor the non-payment of a fine
meets the policyobjectives of usingcommunityservice orders onlywhere custodyis in
immediate contemplation bythe sentencer. Section 110 imposes an obligation upon the
prosecution to bring separate breach proceedings for non-payment of the fine in addition
to the original criminal proceedings relating to the issue of guilt andthe initial sentence.
Accordingly, this necessitates entirelynewproceedings for non-payment of the fine by
childoffenders sentenced to such penalty, a procedure which does not exist andis not
necessaryfor fine penalties for adult offenders, as the fine penaltyfor adults contains
within the order itself a period for payment and the specifiedperiodof imprisonment in
default of payment of such fine. For example, a fine for careless driving under Section 52
of the Road Traffic Act 1961 might readin respect of an adult offender: “a fine of two
hundredandfiftyeuros, ninetydays to pay, fifteen days imprisonment in default”.
However section 110 which deals with default in payment of a fine, costs or compensation
requires an entirelynewproceedingin addition to the criminal trial or plea of guiltywhich
precededthe making of the fine penaltyin respect of the childoffender, (Shannon
2005:414). The necessityto bringsuch proceedings in cases of default of payment of fines
practicallyguarantees that fines will not be collected havingregard to the experience in
relation to the collection of fines generallyfor adult offenders where no extra proceedings
are requiredandwhere the attrition rate in respect of the collection of such fines is
extremelyhigh and known to be so, bysentencers (Comptroller and Auditor General 2000,
Report No. 37:34). However, it is nowpossible for a court to impose a community
service order on findinga sixteen or seventeen year oldin default in payment of a fine,
which was not allowable under the 1983 Act. It couldon the one hand be arguedthat the
imposition of a communityservice order for the non-payment of a fine is less stringent or
punitive than incarceration. However, the minimum periodof hours under a community
service order is 40 hours (Section 3(2) Criminal Justice (CommunityService) Act, 1983).
If one applies the principle of equivalence with two hundredand fortyhours (maximum)
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