Circuit Courts see 95 per cent conviction rate in 2014

A total of 2,159 cases were finalised before the Circuit Courts in 2014, with a 100 per cent conviction rate in Monaghan, Donegal, Galway, and Leitrim.

The lowest conviction rate - 89 per cent - was in sexual offence cases, while there was a rate of 93 per cent for road traffic offences, 98 per cent for burglaries and thefts, and 100 per cent for fatal offences.

Additional figures relating to the total number of criminal prosecutions in 2015 - in the Circuit Criminal, Central Criminal and Special Criminal Courts - show the highest rate of prosecutions is in Dublin.

One in every 1,000 people in Dublin faced a criminal trial in 2015. This compares to 0.83 per 1,000 in Limerick, 0.74 per 1,000 in Cork, and 0.72 per 1,000 in Waterford.

Last year, there were 3,250 decisions to prosecute individuals for a serious criminal offence, an increase of 2.4 per cent.