The Courts Service Annual Report 2023 was published on 23 September 2024. While the report presented data for all criminal cases arising within the Irish justice system between January and December 2023, this article only reports on 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, and also determines 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, 21,907 orders were made in relation to drug offences in 2023 – involving 15,858 defendants – which represents a 7% decrease since 2022 (N=17073) (see Table 1 and Table 2).1

Table 1: Number of drug offences in the District Court, 2023

Source: Courts Service (2024)1
* There may be more than one offence brought against a defendant.

Table 2: Number of summary and indictable offences: outcomes in the District Court, 2023

Source: Courts Service (2024)1
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

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 2023 was 518 (see Table 3),1 which represented an approximately 12% increase since 2022 (N=462). In 2023, young offenders received a range of punishments, including being imprisoned or detained (n=4), community service (n=15) or sentenced to probation (n=119). The number of young people placed on probation in 2023 (n=119) was slightly higher than in 2022 (n=114).

Table 3: Number of juvenile crime outcomes in 2023

Source: Courts Service (2024)1
Note: 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

Circuit Court

In 2023, the Circuit Court heard cases for 865 defendants that involved 3,368 drug offences. There were 2,803 guilty pleas, which represented nearly a 10% increase from 2022 (N=2551); of the cases that went to trial, 69 resulted in convictions and 12 resulted in acquittals (see Table 4). Trials resulted in 395 imprisonments/detentions and 500 suspended sentences (see Table 5).1

Table 4: Number of sentences for drug offences in the Circuit Court in 2023

Source: Courts Service (2024)1
Guilty = guilty pleas; NP = nolle prosequi; TIC = taken into consideration; Quash = quash return for trial; Dec = accused deceased
* There may be more than one offence brought against a defendant.

Table 5: Number of offence outcomes following conviction in the Circuit Court in 2023

Source: Courts Service (2024)1
TIC = taken into consideration; Disq = disqualified; C/S = community service; Prob = probation; Imp/det = imprisonment or detention; Susp = suspended sentence 

Appeals (from District Court)

In 2023, 677 appeals from the District Court, representing 1,078 offences, were dealt with in the Circuit Court.1 Appeals and offences in 2023 were approximately 38% and 10% higher, respectively, than in 2022 (appeals = 489; offences = 977). Table 6 shows a breakdown of resolved offences.

Table 6: Number of appeals from District Court, 2023

Source: Courts Service (2024)1
Aff = affirmed; Rev = reversed; S/O N/A = struck out no appearance

Table 7: Summary of resolved appeals in 2023

Source: Courts Service (2024)1

Court of Appeal

Overall, the number of appeals that were lodged from the Circuit Criminal Court for drug/misuse of drugs offences was more than 24% higher in 2023 (n=179) than in 2022 (n=144). Overall, 127 appeals that originated in the Circuit Criminal Court were resolved in 2023.1 Table 7 indicates that most appeals resolved were for sentence severity (n=107), followed by sentence leniency (n=11), conviction and sentence (n=6), and conviction (n=3).

Conclusion

The report was commended by the Chief Justice and chairperson of the Courts Service Board, Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell. He acknowledged that the Courts Service Annual Report 2023 is:

Just a snapshot of the work of the courts in 2023, which highlights the strides being made in dealing with the legacy of challenges associated with a post-pandemic era, and consistently driving and implementing change to improve court services to users as they worked towards making the modernisation of the Courts a reality. (p. 5)1

1    Courts Service (2024) Courts Service Annual Report 2023. Dublin: Courts Service. Available from: https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/42158/

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. Dublin: Irish Statute Book. Available from:
https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2006/act/26/section/129/enacted/en/html