Revealed: 27% more drug-driving offences in first nine months of 2025 than all of last year

New data reveals that 28,206 people have appeared in courts on drink- or drug-driving charges in five years

Data released to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín shows that the number of people appearing in Irish courts for driving under the influence of drugs in the first nine months of 2025 had already far exceeded the figures for all of 2024. File picture: Jason Clarke

The number of people in court for driving under the influence of drugs in the first nine months of 2025 was 27% higher than the entirety of 2024.

Stark figures reveal that over the last five years, 28,206 people have appeared in courts for drink or drug-driving.

It comes amid increasing concern about the number of road fatalities on Irish roads ahead of the busy festive period.

175 road deaths so far this year

As of yesterday, 175 people had been killed in road incidents during 2025, up from 164 in the same period last year.

The latest fatalities were of three men in two separate collisions in Tipperary and of a male pedestrian in Monaghan.

Figures provided to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín by the Courts Service show that the number of people appearing in court for driving under the influence of drugs in the first nine months of 2025 had already exceeded the figures recorded in each of the previous four years.

1,910 on drug-driving charges in nine months

By September 30, 1,910 people had appeared before the courts on drug-driving offences.

This is up 27% on all of 2024, which had seen 1,499 appearances.

In all of 2023, 1,844 people charged with drug driving were in court. This was up from 1,668 court appearances in 2022, and 1,179 in 2021.

In total, 8,100 people have been before the courts for drug-driving since 2021.

The highest number of drug-driving court cases are in Dublin — with 501 heard there up to the end of September. Some 1,892 of the 8,100 drug-driving cases before the courts nationally over the last five years have been heard in the capital.

Across the Cork district court areas, 151 people had been charged with drug driving by the end of September this year, and 910 in total since 2021.

Drink driving 

Elsewhere, some 20,106 people have been before the courts for drink driving in the last five years.

This included 3,113 people in the first nine months of 2025.

Gardaí are currently in the midst of a Christmas safe-driving enforcement campaign for the festive period, and in one week alone have caught 118 people for driving under the influence of an intoxicant (alcohol and drugs).

Mr Tóibín told the Irish Examiner there has been a “savage” increase in cases of people caught driving under the influence, at a time when Ireland is also seeing an increase in road deaths.

“In recent years, the number of gardaí assigned to road traffic policing has gone down,” he said.

What these statistics on drink and drug driving show is that when there are fewer gardaí and fewer checkpoints, more drivers engage in risky behaviour and break the law.

“The number of gardaí assigned to roads policing dropped from 1,046 in 2009 to 618 in 2025, a reduction of 40%.”

Susan Gray, of the Parc Road Safety Group, stated that former Garda commissioner Drew Harris committed to 150 new roads gardaí across 2024 and 2025.

In 2024, there were 49 gardaí allocated to roads policing, with just 68 new members recruited by the end of October 2025.

“More and more drink [and] drug offences are being detected with less gardaí,” Ms Gray said.

“Can you imagine how many would be detected if we had the full complement of the roads policing?”

A Garda spokesperson confirmed that 76 members have been allocated to roads policing “during Q4 2024 and to 31st October 2025”.