The number of people convicted of drink and drug driving offences has decreased for the first time in four years across County Galway.
Last year, 178 persons were recorded by the Courts Service as convicted of drink and drug driving offences in County Galway’s district courts, down almost 8 per cent from 2022 when 193 people were convicted. The figures for 2020 and 2021 are 172 and 188 persons convicted respectively.
In Galway city last year, 89 people were convicted of drink driving, down from 97 in 2022. Tuam district court convicted 29 people in 2023, down from 35 the previous year. In Loughrea, 30 people were convicted versus 33 the year previous, while in Ballinasloe, 17 people were convicted compared to 20 in 2022.
Clifden District Court bucked this downward trend with 13 people convicted last year, up from nine in 2022. A sitting of Kilronan District Court on Inis Mór convicted one person of a drink driving offence in 2022, with none recorded last year.
The true number of convictions is likely to be higher, but the Courts Service can only capture data when prosecutors record convictions with accurate offence codes on its IT system. Driving-related drug and alcohol convictions often share the same code number, so cannot be broken down into distinct categories.
It is understood prosecutors sometimes record convictions in “free text”, and without codes these data are not recorded.
Meanwhile, there were almost 4,000 fines levied by Galway’s district courts last year. The total value of the fines for 2023 was €1,103,332.
District court judges in Galway city directed total donations of €27,700 to local causes via the court’s poor box system, alongside €5,990 from the Loughrea and Ballinasloe district.
A spokesman for the Courts Service described the Poor Box as being “predominantly used by the District Courts which deal with criminal offences of a less serious nature. The individual amounts can vary substantially depending on ability to pay, other penalties imposed, and the nature of the offences”. The option of paying into the court poor box usually arises where the offence is minor in nature and would not attract a custodial sentence.
Public order offences can be the most common offences for which the poor box option is given to defendants. These include breaches of the peace, intoxication, or disorderly conduct in a public place, threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour, or failing to comply with a direction from An Garda Síochána.
It is occasionally used for first time, minor drug offences, and offences against property.
