Irish Courts Service defends drink driving conviction rate

The Courts Service dismissed figures released by the Department of Justice and Equality (DJE), telling the Irish Times that the accurate figure was closer to 85-88 per cent when only including cases successfully brought to completion.

Figures covering the period from January 2013-May 2015 were released by the DJE earlier this month in response to a written parliamentary question, but are said to have included some cases which had not yet concluded.

According to the Courts Service, district courts finalised 11,236 drink driving cases between January 2013-August 2015 and made 9,714 convictions (86.4 per cent).

The conviction rate was 88 per cent in 2013 and 85 per cent in 2014.

The Courts Service said discourse about a low conviction rate had been based on “the extrapolation of conviction rates from the wrong set of figures”.

Its figures do not include “summonses that had been processed but did not proceed to prosecution, or were struck out, or withdrawn” because “the courts did not get to hear any evidence, or decide upon the case”.