A range of offences increased last year, according to the Courts Service’s annual report for 2024, published today.
The Central Criminal Court – which largely deals with murder, attempted murder and rape cases – saw trials relating to 1,512 offences involving 265 defendants in 2024. New cases received involved 2,810 offences involving 435 defendants.
The report shows that 3,650 new sexual offences were received by the District Court last year. This is an increase of 13.6 per cent (3,211 cases) on 2023. Statistics published in the report show that public order and assault cases have also increased – with a rise of 9.6 per cent reported.
Larceny, fraud, robbery, public order, and assault cases also increased last year according to the figures, seeing an increase of 15.4 per cent.
The number of new criminal matters presented to the courts last year rose by 6.3 per cent, with a total of 390,158 new criminal matters before the courts. According to the report, 62 per cent of the 434 sentences handed down for rape – including attempted rape – range from 10 years to life imprisonment.
Planning and Environment cases increased in number to 241 cases last year up from 108 in 2023. The number of cases finalised by the court increased by 96% year on year.
The Court of Appeal had 341 new criminal appeals last year – up from 308 in 2023. The Court disposed of 269 appeals in respect of 2,014 offences (304 appeals in respect of 1,847 offences in 2023).
The number of new offences of more serious crime increased from 19,569 offences in 2023 to 22,822 in 2024. The courts finalised cases relating to 27,821 serious offences up from 26,486 in 2023, and 24,242 the previous year– showing that the courts finalised and cleared 15% more serious cases over a two year period .
Likewise, at District Court level, the numbers of less serious cases coming to the court increased by 6.5% up to 350,852. The court disposed of 309,787 such cases last year.
New Civil cases across all courts increased to almost 184,000 last year up from 180,000 in 2023, 170,000 in 2022, and 140,365 in 2021 – an increase in new civil cases of 31% over four years.
There were 12,989 new personal injury cases last year across the courts in 2024. This was down from 13,434 in 2023. In 2024 there were 41 % less new Personal Injury cases than in 2019 – when the figure was 21,981.
Sentences in Rape cases
434 sentences for Rape (including attempted rape) were handed down last year in the Central Criminal Court, according to the report. This was made up of 177 prison sentences, 242 other prison sentences partly suspended and 14 detention orders for juveniles.
Of the 434 sentences for Rape, 9 attracted life sentence, 261 received over 10 years imprisonment, 106 between 5-10 years, 54 between 2-5 years
There were 531 other prison sentences for other sexual offences, 109 partly suspended prison sentences, 14 fully suspended and 4 detention orders for juveniles, the report adds.
Circuit Criminal Court
According to the annual report, the Circuit Court issued 14,858 sentences for more serious crime last year, up from 14,002 the previous year: this included 3983 sentences of imprisonment, 2,073 suspended prison sentences, 562 probation orders, 154 community service orders, 3,776 bonds to keep the peace.
The District court sent 19,944 more serious offences involving 6,610 defendants to the Circuit court last year. This was up from the 16,875 more serious offences sent to the Circuit Court in 2023, involving 6,271 defendants, marking an increase of 18%.
Of the cases resolved by the Circuit Court 13,601 offences were pleaded guilty to, 1,153 saw conviction following a trial with 541 acquittals (along with other outcomes).
District Court
At District Court level, drugs accounted for 27,783 new cases before the District Court last year, down from 29,809 in 2023, and 30,045 in 2022: and down from 33,242 in 2019 ; – a 16.5% reduction over six years.
Larceny / fraud and Robbery totalled 39,038 new cases, up from 33,849 new cases in 2023. This represented a 15.3% increase year on year. Meanwhile, public order and assault cases totalled 47,956 in 2024 – up from 43,750 new cases in 2023 . This, the report notes, shows an increase of 9.6% year on year.
Road Traffic offences accounted for 185,578 new cases in 2024, up from 170,839 in 2023, marking a 8.6% year on year. However, the Courts Service notes that over six years it is down from 226,000 in 2019; – almost an 18 % reduction.
Juveniles before the District Court faced charges in relation to 577 drugs matters, 1,108 larcenies, 756 public order matters and 1,048 road traffic matters.
Commenting, Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Jim O’Callaghan, said:
“An independent and well-functioning courts service is, of course, imperative. An efficient legal system, which guarantees timely access to justice for all, is central to any civilised modern society.
“I want to emphasise that I, and my Department, are committed to ensuring adequate resources for the Courts Service, so that it can support the judiciary and provide an excellent service to all users of the courts… It is a priority of this Government to ensure that the courts are resourced to administer justice efficiently and effectively. To this end my Department aims to fill judicial vacancies at the earliest opportunity… This past year marks the first full calendar year of supporting a significantly enlarged judiciary and court operations.
“As committed to in the Programme for Government, an additional 20 judges will be appointed within the first 12 months of this government’s tenure. It is my intention to ask the Judicial Appointments Commission to initiate the selection processes for these judges later this year… Taken together, these two sets of appointments will represent an increase of approximately 25% in the number of Judges in Ireland.”
The Chairperson of the board of the Courts Service, Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne, said that the report reflected “an ever-busy time for the Courts.”
“It gives a snapshot of the many areas of activities in many areas, showing improvements in the way matters are dealt with, together with changes in some areas of work such as reductions in some case types and increases in others on a year on year basis. Where possible, we track changes over several years and attempt to provide context for such changes in particular areas and years,” Justice Dunne said.