A quarter of all offenders on probation reoffended within a year, while half had reoffended within three years, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Just under a third of men aged under 25 committed further crime within a year of receiving probation, while the figure for women under 25 was 26%.
The figures relate to offenders who received probation in 2021 and represent an overall three percentage point reduction in the reoffending rate from 27% in 2020 to 24% in 2021.
A third of all public order (36%) and theft offenders (32%) had reoffended within a year while one in five of those convicted of a drugs offence (21%) had committed a further crime while on probation.
Half of those on probation for dangerous and negligent acts, 9% of those on public order offences and 7% of burglars and those on related offences reoffended within a year.
The highest level of reoffenders were from Cork and Kerry, with a 28% recidivism rate.
Dublin has a rate of 24%, but the highest number of reoffenders with 1,387 of 4,198 probationers in the capital re-offended within a year.
The highest number of probation orders issued in 2021 were to people who committed drugs offences (831 of 4,198).
Just over one-fifth (21%) of those convicted of drugs offences committed another offence within a year of receiving their probation.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of the re-offending by people who received a probation order in 2021 was by three types of offenders, public order (30%), controlled drug (18%), and theft (16%).
In the longer term, of those who received a probation order in 2019, almost half (49%) had committed at least one offence within three years for which they received a conviction.
The CSO said the year-on-year slight decrease in reoffending by those on probation, was mostly due to the fall in reoffending of people who received probation for road traffic offences, which fell 32%.
