The number of trial dates listed at the Central Criminal Court has increased by two thirds over the past five years, according to the annual report of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
There has also been a dramatic increase in the number of trials of serious offences held outside Dublin since 2019 .
The report says the number has risen from 127 Central Criminal Court dates outside Dublin in 2019, to 517 last year, an increase of 407%.
The report says the increase in the number of judges in the Central Criminal Court from five to twelve in recent years has led to this "significant increase in the level of activity".
In total, the office of the DPP received 17,603 files in 2023 and more than 11,000 of these involved serious offences which required decisions on whether or not to prosecute.
A prosecution was directed in relation to almost two thirds of suspects and most decisions on whether to prosecute were made within four weeks.
The office received 536 requests last year for reasons for its decisions. The highest number of requests related to sexual offences.
There were also 223 requests for a review of a decision; ten of these led to the original decision being overturned.
The main reason for a decision not to go forward with a prosecution was insufficient evidence.
This applied to 76% of cases where a prosecution was not proceeded with and is a similar figure to previous years.
The other main reason for not prosecuting is the withdrawal of a complaint by an injured party.
The report shows that just over four and a half thousand jury trials were directed in relation to files received by the DPP in 2022.
Of those, around half have been resolved, mainly through convictions via guilty pleas and half have yet to be heard.
In the Central Criminal Court where the most serious cases are heard, 25 prosecutions for murder were directed in 2022.
These resulted in nine convictions for murder, and two convictions for a lesser charge.
14 cases were still to be heard as of June this year.
175 prosecutions for rape were directed in 2022.
Of these, 39 resulted in a rape conviction and there were five convictions on a lesser charge.
There were six acquittals, five cases were disposed of for other reasons and there were 120 cases still to be heard as of June this year.
230 cases concluded in the Central Criminal Court in 2023, the report shows.
38 applications by the DPP for a review of sentence on the grounds of leniency were heard by the Appeal Court last year, the report states, and the DPP was successful in 32 cases.
Almost 200 orders for confiscation and forfeiture orders in relation to the proceeds of crime were granted by the courts in 2023, to a value of almost €5 million.
In her foreword to the report, the DPP, Catherine Pierse, said that she was very conscious of how important it was for people to be sufficiently informed about the work of the office so that they can have "trust and confidence" in it.
She said that the office had participated in the national ploughing championships with other colleagues from the criminal justice sector, sharing information about supporting victims of crime.
She said that the office had also provided training and participated in discussion panels with groups representing victims, adding that she would continue to look at ways to further the public's understanding of the work of her office.
