A new report comparing Ireland's justice system to other countries has shown the average number of sexual offences committed here between 2019 and 2023 was 43% higher than the EU average.
However, Ireland’s homicide rates were lower than average rates in the EU for the same period.
The rate of theft and related offences was 14% higher than the EU average.
The Law Society of Ireland says this research paper, published by its Centre for Justice and Law Reform, is the first comprehensive benchmark of how Ireland’s justice system compares internationally.
It says its purpose is to provide policymakers with reliable and objective evidence to inform decision making.
The Centre analysed more than 100 national and international sources of data in the areas of trust, policing, courts and prisons.
38.5% fewer homicide offences than other EU member states
The report says an increase in the number of recorded sexual offence incidents is a trend found across the EU.
Between 2019 and 2023, the overall average rate of sexual offences across the EU was just over 40 per 100,000 people. In Ireland it was 57.5 per 100,000, more than 43% higher.
It says, however, that these numbers should be seen in the context of the rise in the reporting of sexual offences in Ireland in the past decade, including the reporting of incidents that occurred many years earlier.
Ireland recorded 38.5% fewer homicide offences than other EU member states on average.
The researchers say it was not possible to compare detection rates for crimes across jurisdictions, but they say there are clear differences in this country in the detection rates for various crimes.
Detection rates for homicide offences in Ireland averaged 82% between 2019 and 2022. But detection rates for sexual offences were much lower, ranging between 20% in 2019 and 2020 and 16% in 2022.
Detection rates for theft offences averaged 35% between 2019 and 2022.
The report shows that trust in policing and in the courts is higher in Ireland than in other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
But confidence in the effectiveness of the prison service was not possible to measure due to a lack of data.
The research found the average sentence served in Irish prisons is five to seven months, lower than the ten to eleven months average in countries who are members of the Council of Europe.
The report also shows that the number of gardaí decreased between 2019 and 2024 despite an increase in Ireland’s population.
Ireland had 264 police officers per 100,000 people in 2024. This was fewer than Northern Ireland and Scotland but above the average of six other jurisdictions.
The research paper shows that Ireland spent 25% less per capita on the courts than the European average in 2022. It also takes three times longer for a case to come to an end - or to be disposed of - in Ireland, compared to the European average.
In 2022, the data showed that it took an average of 541 days to dispose of a case, more than three times the average European estimate. It says the average disposition time has reduced between 2019 and 2024 but because of gaps in data at court level, a full assessment of Ireland’s performance in this area is limited.
The report also shows Ireland has the lowest number of judges per 100,000 people compared with other European countries. And it says Irish courts clear fewer cases per year than other EU member states.
The Law Society has made 16 recommendations in the research paper. It calls for better data to be collected and published in relation to the length of court proceedings, detection rates for crime, the number of civil cases settled each year, and the extent of the case backlog each year.
The Director General of the society, Mark Garrett, said objective, reliable data was essential to understanding how well a justice system functions in practice.
He said the report made it clear there was an urgent need for more comprehensive and transparent data collection and reporting across the Irish justice system.
President of the Law Society, Rosemary Loftus, said reforms of the justice system should be underpinned by reliable data and rigorous analysis and it was hoped this research paper would help policy makers to develop fair, transparent and effective justice policies.
