A new report comparing Ireland’s justice system with those in other countries has found that the average number of sexual offences reported here between 2019 and 2023 was 43% above the EU average.
However, Ireland’s homicide rate during the same period was lower than the average across the European Union, reports RTE.
The rate of theft and related offences in Ireland was found to be 14% higher than the EU average.
The Law Society of Ireland said the research paper, published by its Centre for Justice and Law Reform, represents the first wide-ranging benchmark comparing Ireland’s justice system with others internationally, reports RTE.
It said the aim of the study is to give policymakers dependable and impartial evidence to support informed decision-making.
The centre examined more than 100 national and international data sources covering trust, policing, courts and prisons, reports RTE.
The report said that a rise in recorded sexual offence incidents is a trend seen across the EU.
Between 2019 and 2023, the average rate of sexual offences across the EU was just over 40 per 100,000 people, while in Ireland it stood at 57.5 per 100,000, more than 43% higher, reports RTE.
It said these figures should be viewed in the context of increased reporting of sexual offences in Ireland over the past decade, including reports of incidents that occurred many years earlier.
Ireland recorded 38.5% fewer homicide offences on average compared with other EU member states, reports RTE.
The researchers said it was not possible to directly compare crime detection rates across different jurisdictions, but noted there are clear differences within Ireland in detection rates for various offences.
Detection rates for homicide offences in Ireland averaged 82% between 2019 and 2022, while detection rates for sexual offences were significantly lower, ranging from 20% in 2019 and 2020 to 16% in 2022, reports RTE.
Detection rates for theft-related offences averaged 35% between 2019 and 2022.
The report found that levels of trust in policing and the courts are higher in Ireland than in other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, reports RTE.
However, it said confidence in the effectiveness of the prison service could not be measured due to insufficient data.
The research also found that the average sentence served in Irish prisons is between five and seven months, compared with an average of ten to eleven months in countries that are members of the Council of Europe, reports RTE.
The report shows that the number of gardaà declined between 2019 and 2024, despite growth in Ireland’s population.
In 2024, Ireland had 264 police officers per 100,000 people, fewer than in Northern Ireland and Scotland but higher than the average across six other jurisdictions, reports RTE.
The research paper shows that Ireland spent 25% less per person on the courts than the European average in 2022, and that it takes three times longer for cases to be concluded or disposed of here compared with the European average.
In 2022, it took an average of 541 days to dispose of a case, more than three times the European average, and while disposition times have fallen between 2019 and 2024, gaps in court-level data limit a full assessment of Ireland’s performance, reports RTE.
The report also shows that Ireland has the lowest number of judges per 100,000 people compared with other European countries, and that Irish courts clear fewer cases each year than courts in other EU member states.
The Law Society has made 16 recommendations in the research paper, calling for improved data collection and publication on court proceedings, crime detection rates, the number of civil cases settled annually and the scale of case backlogs, reports RTE.
Director General of the society Mark Garrett said objective, reliable data was essential to understanding how effectively a justice system operates in practice,
He said the findings highlighted an urgent need for more comprehensive and transparent data collection and reporting across the Irish justice system, reports RTE.
Law Society President Rosemarie Loftus said reforms to the justice system should be grounded in reliable data and rigorous analysis and that it was hoped the research paper would assist policymakers in developing fair, transparent and effective justice policies.
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