More than one in four individuals charged with a public order offence are now being fined instead of facing a court appearance.
New figures show a growing number of people charged with offences like disorderly behaviour and drunkenness are avoiding being summonsed.
However, a response to a parliamentary question by Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell also show widespread variations across the country in to the use of such discretionary powers by gardaí.
They reveal that individuals caught being drunk and/or disorderly in Dublin and Cork city centres are far more likely to face a court appearance than if the same offences were committed in more rural towns and villages.
Official Garda figures show 8,807 public order offences out of a total of over 32,000 recorded last year were dealt with by way of a fine – equating to 27.5% of all public order offences.
The proportion of such offences being handled by issuing a fixed charge notice has increased steadily in recent years from just 9.7% in 2010.
A Garda spokesperson said: “The fixed charge processing system is preferable to charging or summonsing a person to appear before the District Court for specified ‘minor’ offences.”
