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27th Feb 2015

Audio: Donegal councillor reacts angrily to jailing of single mother over non-payment of TV licence

This is astonishing

Eric Lalor

This is astonishing.

There’s something incredibly infuriating about this story.

A single mother in Donegal was jailed for the non-payment of her TV licence. She had been fined €450 by a court for the non-payment of her licence, but had actually paid off €212 from the total.

This wasn’t deemed sufficient by the powers that be and, a few weeks ago,  she answered a call to her door at 7.10am to see two Gardai who, according to the audio below, told her she had to come with them “up the road”, a term used to describe Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.

prison families

She was then brought by taxi to the Dóchas Women’s Prison in Dublin where she was held there for three hours, then released, and given a bus ticket back to Donegal.

A local councillor, Gary Doherty, spoke to Highland Radio in Donegal to express his indignation and outrage at the “morally wrong” case.

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