Updated 11.35
€2 million was collected through poor boxes of the Irish courts in 2012. New figures show the cash was divided up between 700 charities and community groups.
Oxfam Ireland was the largest benefactor as they received over €126,000.
A quarter of the funds collected around the country that year came from offenders in Co. Kerry.
The courts can direct that money be given to the poor box alongside, or instead of, another penalty.
It is 9 years since the Law Reform Commission recommended the poor box be put on a statutory footing.
Ruadhan Mac Cormaic, Legal Affairs Correspondent with Irish Times, spoke to Newstalk's Pat Kenny Show earlier.
He clarified that the poor box is a custom, not recognised in law. It is administered by local court staff.
The Law Reform Commission previously investigated the practice, and confirmed there is no evidence to suggest that people with money are buying their way out of convictions, but the Commission admitted the perception might be damaging.
Judge Catherine McGuinness is a former chair of the Commission. She told Breakfast here on Newstalk it is a system at the total discretion of the judge:
