Flanagan promises to improve public confidence in District Court

He was responding in the Dáil to a programme by RTÉ Investigates featuring examples of donations to the poor box being used instead of convictions in cases such as those of dangerous driving.

The programme found that a mere 48 per cent of people driving over the alcohol limit were convicted.

Mr Flanagan (pictured) said: “I take very seriously the outcome of the RTÉ programme last night, and I will advise the House accordingly in the new year of the options available to me in terms of the review.”

He said he recently met the District Court president, Judge Rosemary Horgan as well as the Attorney General Séamus Woulfe and acknowledged the system, which has been more or less the same since the 1920s, faces some pressures.

The Just Minister noted that the Criminal Justice Act 2017 increased the factors the court can take account of when granting bail and said that if the Act was not working as intended, the bail laws would be reviewed.