Probation Service Annual Report 2022

19th October 2023

The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee published the Probation Service Annual Report 2022 on 19 October 2023.

For IPRT's full response to the publication, see our press release here.

Some key points from the report:

Drop in community service orders (CSO) with vast areas around the country where orders were not made.
The CSOs managed resulted in 174,287 hours of community service work in lieu of 566 years in prison resulting in €2m worth of unpaid work for the benefit of communities nationwide.
A fall in family conferencing (which is a restorative justice mechanism).
76% of referrals are for the top 6 offences: drug offences, assault, theft, public order, road traffic and burglary
Service failed to meet targets on pre-sanction assessment reports or assessment reports for the Parole Board.
Probation service dealt with an increased number of women in 2022.
There was an increase in the total referrals from court – 1,273 in 2021 to 1,384 in 2022.
Increase in the number of pre-sanction reports (790 to 915) and orders without prior reports but referrals for CS remained largely the same (168 to 164) while pre-sanction reports to consider CS fell from 131 in 2019 to 86 in 2022. However, there was an increase in orders for probation supervision.
Court referrals for young people are down overall from 1,141 in 2021 to 1,099 in 2022. Greater use of probation supervision during deferment of penalty and part-suspended supervision orders but drop in Community Service Orders made from 2021.

The Probation Service Annual Report 2022 is available here.

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