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Recorded Crime Detection 2022

Fixed Payment Offences

Fixed Notices issued for Drink driving offences up while Motorway and Public Order offences were down in 2022

Online ISSN: 2711-9971

CSO statistical release, 20 November 2023, 11am

Lifting of Under Reservation Categorisation

Following the publication of the fifth Review of the Quality of Crime Statistics in October 2023, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has lifted the 'Under Reservation' categorisation around Recorded Crime Statistics. This is possible because An Garda Síochána have introduced a range of quality measures over the last number of years which have resulted in sustained improvement in the quality of the underlying crime data. These changes give a level of assurance to users that they can rely on Recorded Crime Statistics.

For further information see our Lifting of Under Reservation categorisation for Recorded Crime Statistics FAQ page.

Fixed Payment Notices can be issued by An Garda Siochana for a wide variety of offences, including many road traffic and some public order offences. They provide an offender the opportunity to pay a fine to avoid prosecution. In December 2020, additional Fixed Payment Notices were introduced for breaches of COVID-19 regulations.

The Garda Fixed Charge Processing System (FCPS) database is used to administer the issuing of Fixed Payment Notices. The number of offences for which Fixed Payment Notices were issued, excluding terminated Notices, for years 2016 to 2022 is given in Table 6.1. Users should note when looking at this table that there were varying COVID-19 restrictions in place for 2020 and 2021. These had an impact on levels of crime, for example, reduced traffic volumes, increased Garda road checkpoints, closure of licensed premises, etc.

The results show that.

Drink driving offences were up 28% to 777 in 2022 but still well below pre COVID-19 levels (1,069 offences in 2019).
Fixed Payment Notices issued for Holding a Mobile Phone while Driving at 18,041 and Seat Belt offences at 5,521, were each down by about a fifth since 2021.
Fixed Payment Notices for Public Order offences were up by 19% to 6,697 since 2021.
The number of notices issued for motor tax offences was up 13% to 34,666 between 2021 and 2022 while those for insurance offences were down 14%.
Offences relating to Carriage of Goods (HGV etc.), Trailers, Taxis, Luas offences fell by 38% to 181 between 2021 and 2022.
Motorway offences were down 32% to 107 while cycling offences were up by 22% to 1,077 between 2021 and 2022. See Figure 6.1 and Table 6.1.

X-axis label	Percentage Change
Public Order offences	19
Drink Driving offences	28
Speeding offences	-8
Holding a Mobile Phone while Driving	-22
Seat Belt (incl. child restraint) offences	-20
No Tax	13
No Insurance	-14
No NCT	1
Failing to Display L or N plates	-8
Unaccompanied Learner Driver	-1
Vehicle Roadworthiness offences	-17
Motorway offences	-32
Parking offences	-7
Cycling offences	22
Carriage of Goods (HGV etc), Trailers, Taxis, Luas offences	-38

Table 6.1 Fixed Payment Notice offences issued by An Garda Síochána, 2016-2022

Table 6.1 Fixed Payment Notice offences¹issued by An Garda Síochána, 2016-2022²
	Fixed Payment Notice offences
Type of Offence	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022

1a. Public Order offences³	7,001	7,635	8,472	8,128	5,469	5,632	6,697
1b. Breaches of Public Health restrictions⁴	0	0	0	0	57	23,067	8

2a. Drink Driving offences³	1,237	1,418	1,344	1,069	614	605	777
2b. Speeding offences	165,982	141,451	132,048	132,731	175,692	174,585	160,084
2c. Holding a Mobile Phone while Driving	27,628	27,815	30,800	28,651	24,120	23,560	18,401
2d. Seat Belt (incl. child restraint) offences	9,323	10,392	11,121	10,804	8,342	6,899	5,521

3a. No Tax	34,200	37,761	38,750	34,656	33,513	30,764	34,666
3b. No Insurance	5,016	7,312	7,606	7,071	6,791	5,027	4,339
3c. No NCT	8,382	8,891	9,083	9,185	5,944	4,706	4,746

4a. Failing to Display L or N plates	4,184	4,152	3,895	4,614	5,217	5,665	5,205
4b. Unaccompanied Learner Driver	5,534	5,876	5,016	5,957	6,655	7,549	7,451

5a. Vehicle Roadworthiness offences	2,369	2,670	3,094	3,207	3,433	2,857	2,385
5b. Motorway offences	185	147	124	120	151	158	107
5c. Parking offences	23,352	27,846	32,719	31,932	31,182	31,679	29,482
5d. Other Driving offences	20,785	18,205	22,197	22,230	17,125	16,715	16,795

6a. Cycling offences	578	1,284	1,406	1,398	1,175	883	1,077
6b. Carriage of Goods (HGV etc), Trailers, Taxis, Luas offences	331	237	312	334	396	293	181
¹The range of offences for which Fixed Payment Notices apply has changed several times within reference period 2016 - 2022.
²Data extracted 29th September 2023.
³ The set of offences for which Fixed Charge Notices or Fixed Penalty Notices are applied is a subset of all such offences on PULSE.
⁴A large volume of Fixed Payment Notices were issued by An Garda Siochana for Breaches of Public Health Restrictions in Quarter 1 2021. This arose because the facility to fully record all Fixed Charge Notices in respect of Breaches of COVID-19 restrictions was only available on the FCPS from 7 December 2020. See background notes above for further information.

Open in Excel: Recorded Crime Detection 2022 Table 6.1 (XLS 11KB)

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Recorded Crime Detection 2022

Fixed Payment Offences

Fixed Notices issued for Drink driving offences up while Motorway and Public Order offences were down in 2022

Lifting of Under Reservation Categorisation

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