The 2021 annual report of the Courts Service was published on 28 July 2022. While the report presented data for all criminal cases arising within the Irish justice system between January and December 2021, this article only discusses the statistics of prosecutions for drug offences.1 The data provided are for overall drug law offences. The Courts Service in Ireland does not distinguish between the different supply offences and possession/use offences (Courts Service, personal communication, 2017).

District Court
In most cases, prosecutions for drug offences are carried out in the District Court, which is the lowest court in the Irish legal system. The District Court, exercising its criminal jurisdiction, deals with four types of offences: summary offences, indictable offences tried summarily, some indictable offences, and indictable offences not tried summarily. When the District Court hears a criminal case, the judge sits without a jury. The District Court judge decides the issues of fact and whether to convict. They also determine the sentence. In the case of most indictable offences that must be tried by a judge sitting with a jury, the District Court may impose a sentence where the accused pleads guilty, provided that the Director of Public Prosecutions consents, and the judge accepts the guilty plea. Otherwise, the accused is sent forward to the Circuit Court on their signed guilty plea for sentencing. The District Court has a limit on the sentence it may impose in respect of a single criminal charge, which is 12 months’ imprisonment.2 Overall, 25,727 orders were made in relation to drug offences in 2021 (summary: n=3231; indictable: n=22496) – involving 19,909 defendants, which represents a 56% increase since 2020 (n=16456) (see Tables 1 and 2).1

Table 1: Number of sentences for drug offences in the District Court, 2021

* There may be more than one offence brought against a defendant.

Source: Courts Service, 2022, p. 90

Table 2: Number of summary and indictable offences: outcomes in the District Court, 2021

Dis: dismiss; S/O: strike out; TIC: taken into consideration; Disq: disqualified; C/S: community service;
Prob: probation; Imp/Det: imprisonment or detention; Susp: suspended sentence.

Source: Courts Service, 2022, pp. 90–91

Juvenile crime
The age of criminal responsibility in Ireland is 12 years (Section 52 of the Children Act 2001, as amended by Section 129 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006).3 Generally, children who come before the courts are aged between 15 and 17 years. The total number of orders that were made in respect of drug offences in the Children Court in 2021 was 488 (see Table 3),1 which represented an 118% decrease, approximately, since 2020 (n=224). In 2021, some 124 young offenders were imprisoned or detained, of which two were sentenced to community service (n=2), while the rest were sentenced to probation (n=122). The number of young people placed on probation in 2021 (n=122) was nearly three times higher than the 2020 figure (n=38). 

Table 3: Number of juvenile crime outcomes, 2021

Dis: dismiss; S/O: strike out; TIC: taken into consideration; Disq: disqualified; C/S: community service;
Prob: probation; Imp/Det: imprisonment or detention; Susp: suspended sentence.

Source: Courts Service, 2022, p. 92

Circuit Court
The Circuit Court heard cases for 892 defendants that involved 3,310 drug offences in 2021. There were 2,181 guilty pleas, which represented a 24% increase from 2020 (n=1758). Of the cases that went to trial, 23 resulted in convictions and 19 resulted in acquittals (see Table 4). Trials resulted in 349 imprisonments/detentions and 378 suspended sentences (see Table 5).1

Table 4: Number of sentences for drug offences in the Circuit Court, 2021

Guilty: guilty pleas; NP: nolle prosequi; TIC: taken into consideration; Quash: quash a return for trial;
Dec: accused deceased.

* There may be more than one offence brought against a defendant.

Source: Courts Service, 2022, p. 93

Table 5: Number of offence outcomes following conviction in the Circuit Court, 2021

TIC: taken into consideration; Disq: disqualified; C/S: community service; Prob: probation; Imp/Det: imprisonment or detention; Susp: suspended sentence.

Source: Courts Service, 2022, p. 94

Appeals (from the District Court)
In 2020, some 574 appeals from the District Court, representing 1,075 offences, were dealt with in the Circuit Court.1 Appeals and offences were 48% and 41% higher than in 2019, respectively (appeals: n=387; offences: n=764). Table 6 shows a breakdown of resolved offences.

Table 6: Number of appeals from the District Court, 2021

S/O: struck out; S/O N/A: struck out no appearance.

Source: Courts Service, 2022, p. 94

Court of Appeal
Overall, the number of appeals that were lodged from the Circuit Criminal Court for drug/misuse of drugs offences were over three times higher in 2021 (n=113) when compared with 2020 (n=36). All the appeals that originated in the Circuit Criminal Court were resolved in 2021.1 Table 7 indicates that most appeals resolved were for sentence severity (n=29), followed by conviction and sentence (n=7), conviction (n=3), and sentence leniency (n=1).

Table 7: Summary of number of resolved appeals, 2021

DPP: Director of Public Prosecutions.

Source: Courts Service, 2022, p. 104

Conclusion
The report was commended by the Chief Justice and chairperson of the board, Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell. He described efforts by the Courts Service in 2021 as one of ‘adaptation and innovation’ as they dealt with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it affected access to and the administration of the service (p. 5).1

1    Courts Service (2022) Courts Service annual report 2021. Dublin: Courts Service. Available from: https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/36984/

2    Courts Service (2013) Courts Service annual report 2012. Dublin: Courts Service. Available from: https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/20180/

3    Office of the Attorney General (2006) Criminal Justice Act 2006. Available at: https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2006/act/26/section/129/enacted/en/html